


Time Travel Manager

by TCIsBestPony



Category: Doctor Who (2005), 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: F/M, bts world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2020-10-21 09:49:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 34,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20691512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TCIsBestPony/pseuds/TCIsBestPony
Summary: Based on the new app BTS world.The MC is a time traveller who travels through time and space with the Doctor. She's been doing it for many years now and nothing much surprises her anymore, until they crash land in Korea 2012 and she discovers her future self has given her CV to a company called Big Hit. She now has a job to bring a boy band together and get them to their debut. It just so happens that band is BTS. Can she manage BTS? Can she do the job her future self seems to think she can?





	1. Chapter 1

“Oh come on, Doctor, let me choose when and where we go this time!” I said, hovering over the TARDIS’s control panel.  
“I guess I have done a lot of the choosing recently…” she said, tapping her chin.  
“Exactly, this one time?” I begged a little more.  
She stared at me seriously, almost as if she was staring into my very soul, something she did an awful lot of the time…but grinned from ear to ear suddenly. Of course she didn’t mind me choosing. The doctor was a kind and generous girl, I adored travelling with her. The past several years had been the best I had ever experienced. So many times and places I had visited, yeah sure a lot were extremely dangerous, but some had sheer beauty that I would never forget. I had made memories I would treasure for the rest of my life. The Doctor had become like a best friend to me.  
“Alright, but make it a good one!” She said, jumping aside from the control panel, almost presenting it to me.  
“I will!” I wiggled my fingers and began to press in a random date in the future for Earth. I was about to type in 3,788 when everything suddenly lurched backwards, sending me and the Doctor flying. Thankfully, we both managed to stop ourselves from getting hurt, grabbing onto the nearest railings we could get. I glanced to the Doctor.  
“Where the heck did you pick?” she asked, smirking slightly “easy girl!” she said to the TARDIS.  
“I hadn’t even finished typing in the number…” Alarm bells began blaring through the spaceship at a deafening degree. Still at an angle, and clinging onto the railings, I struggled with the intensity of the sound. I couldn’t cover my ears, causing my grip to falter, just as the TARDIS lurched the other way. There was no way I could have stopped myself and the last thing I remembered was the Doctor shouting my name.

Ok ow. Pain. Pain in head. Pain all up in my head. Aw jeez. Was that someone calling my name? Was that the Doctor? I kind of recognised her voice. It just seemed so far away. If only the pain could stop. I heard her use her sonic screwdriver…what the… what was she using it on? Ok ow ow ow that was loud! She was using it on me!  
“Ugh, stop…” I managed to finally say.  
“Ah, good, you’re awake, never good to sleep for too long” she said, smiling when I could finally open my eyes.  
“I wasn’t sleeping...” I said, rubbing my head.  
“Unconscious, same thing, only minor concussion, give yourself a minute and you’ll be fine” she smiled more, standing up to investigate the TARDIS console.  
“What the hell happened?” I asked, slowly sitting up. Wow, ok slower…world spinning is not a good idea.  
“Something bumped us” she explained.  
“What? So we’re travelling through space, this large open wide space area and someone rear ends us?” I asked.   
“No, not rear ended us, full on ploughed into us!” the Doctor said as she danced around the control panel, attempting to get the TARDIS to wake up also.  
It dawned on me how bad the hit was, when I realised there weren’t any lights on. The TARDIS must have taken on a lot of damage. Everything inside seemed alright, fine, just dandy, no real issues, but it wasn’t responding to the Doctor. No matter how many buttons she pressed, how many times she cooed to her spaceship, it wouldn’t wake up. Worry started to creep into me.   
“Is the TARDIS ok?” I asked, feeling ok enough to stand up.  
“Oh, she’ll be fine, she’s been through much worse, probably just being a drama queen, want to go check out where we’ve been forced to land?” she gestured to the door and I nodded.  
I carefully walked to the front doors, ever so slightly opening them in case it was too bright. Thankfully, it wasn’t, so I opened the doors more but noticed something a little off with my view. The angle. It was a little…skew whiff. There was a lot more sky than I originally anticipated. That is, until I looked down. Ah. The TARDIS had literally crashed into the ground at an angle. Great. But I couldn’t see any outside damage so that was a plus.  
“Erm, we landed at an angle, but otherwise she’s a ok from outside” I shouted back to the Doctor.  
“Ah that’s good!”   
I glanced back around outside. It was definitely Earth, modern…ish I thought.  
“Earth, my time period, 2000’s, that’s all I can guess from here” I said.  
“Ok, well she’s not waking up, fancy going on an explore yourself to get a bit more info while I try and get her up and running? Then maybe we can find out who bumped into us” she asked. I smiled and nodded.  
“Sure! I’ll be back in a bit” I said, carefully navigating the drop with the difference in gravity.  
Now fully outside, I could see the extent of the damage the TARDIS had caused all around. Thankfully, we seemed to have crashed in an incredibly secluded area, so the main issue was the ground. No buildings or people had been hurt, and mainly, no-one seemed to have noticed. The Doctor must have managed to put a perception filter on before we crashed. Thank God. Last thing I wanted to do was explain to strangers what was going on with the random police box.  
I reached over and pulled the doors up to close them, then began to make my way down a random street. I internally made a note of where we had landed, and promised myself not to go too far so I didn’t get lost. Pulling out my phone, I checked a couple of things. First thing was signal. Could I get it? I could. But my phone was not interested in updating quickly. The date kept changing, the time also. Nothing was solid yet. Great. Meant I had to ask someone.  
I kept walking until the streets became a little busier and I saw signs, in Korean? Wait. Why wasn’t the translation circuit not working? I had a quick panic for a second until all the signs began to translate into English for me. Ok, that was a good sign, the TARDIS was alright, it was my slight concussion causing the delay with translation in my head. Right, so I was in Korea. Fair. But I still had no idea when.  
I spotted someone I could ask and I quickly rushed over, making sure my phone was hidden and playing up my headache which was now passing.  
“Hi, hi, excuse me, sorry, I had such a heavy night last night, you know, us young people do love a party” I laughed “I seem to have lost my phone so I have no idea what time it is, or even the year! It was that wild a night” I laughed again, causing the lady I had asked to also chuckled and smile a bit.  
“You should take it a bit easier next time” she brought her phone out to check the time for me, but I also saw the date, 2012. Phew, I was right, my timeline, but just before I met the Doctor. “It’s 10:02, did you need to call someone?” she offered me her phone kindly and I shook my head.  
“Oh no no, thank you though” I bowed briefly “just needed to know the time, meeting a friend in a bit who can help, thanks again!”  
“No problem dear, maybe stick to water next time” she smiled and left.  
“Definitely” I smiled, watching her go.  
I took a deep breath and looked around the city I was in. Korea, 2012. It was pretty. I knew I probably still had a little time to explore, so I set off in a random direction to have a look around.  
It didn’t take me long to deduce I was in Seoul, the signs and the people around me talking gave me enough to figure that out. It was cool, I had never been to Korea before, well, modern Korea anyway. Me and the Doctor had made a visit during the 70’s and the 1920’s for a bit of fun, modern Korea was so different. It was beautiful. The smells were my favourite part. I promised myself to grab some food before me and the Doctor left later.  
As I walked I came across a street performer. I couldn’t help myself from stopping. He was young, but extremely talented at dancing, that was easy to guess. He had drawn in quite a crowd so it was easy to blend into the background to just watch for a bit. His moves were slick, polished; he clearly had done a lot of practising over the years. His energy was exceptional too, he even managed to encourage some really young kids to try and join in. It was so cute. I smiled to myself, but decided to keep walking, even if I could have watched him all day.  
When I reached a certain point on the pavement, I thought it was probably best I went back to the Doctor. She may have managed to get the TARDIS back up and running, and we could leave, and I had been walking for 20 minutes. As much as I loved exploring new places, there was nothing more I hated than staying in one place. That’s why I loved travelling with the Doctor so much, no one place for longer than a day or two, maximum. It was perfect. I felt like I had seen enough and just wanted to get moving.  
Turning to head back, I literally bumped straight into someone.  
“Oof” Ok ow my head “Oh my God I’m so sorry!” I said, rubbing my face, apologising to the person I had just face planted.  
“Ah good, you’re finally here!” the woman said, stepping back, regaining her posture.  
“Excuse me?” I asked.  
“Thought you’d be here at 9 sharp, guess now will have to do for you to start, come on, follow me” she said, heading into the building behind us.  
“Erm…wait…what the hell you on about?” I asked, stopping her.  
“Hmm, I didn’t believe you when you said you may be confused on your first day but to be patient, but hey, you were right, just follow me” she said and I couldn’t help my curiosity to follow.  
The lady led me to the lift and up to the third floor. The office building wasn’t big, but they did have a sign for their brand, Big Hit, plastered large on their wall. Where had I heard that before? I ignored it, pushing it to the back of my mind and followed the lady to her desk. She shuffled some papers and stuffed them into a folder, even put her thick diary into it too. She didn’t speak. Just sorted stuff. Leaving me standing awkwardly like a lemon. I coughed.  
“I’m sorry but…” I was trying to talk.  
“Right so I’m leaving you information on the boys I want you to find and recruit, my diary which has important numbers, dates and such for you to use, it even has an ideal timeline for you to follow because I’m nice like that” she explained, piling everything into my arms.  
“Erm…” I was so confused.  
“My number is in there, but you promised you would never need it, I mean with your experience I can see why” she said, about to continue.  
“Wait, wait, wait” I said, putting the files and folders down “Why the hell are you giving me all of this?” I finally managed to ask.  
“For your new job, you start today, I want you to form the next big boyband since I’m leaving for a better job” she explained, my jaw dropping.   
“Ya what?” I said, my accent coming out.  
“You gave me your CV last week” she pulled it out of her desk and handed it to me. I firmly grabbed it, and checked over. My stomach flipped, my heart sank, it was my CV, everything I had done, my signature, except it said I had managed boy groups before, which I had not. How the hell had she managed to get this? She said I gave it to her? I felt dizzy and sick. “You look a little pale…”  
“Telling me” I said, trying to steady my breathing “I gave you this last week?” I asked.  
“Yep, came to my office, practically begged for the job! Couldn’t say no to you, don’t think you would have taken a no to be honest” she said.  
Time travel. So topsy turvy and timey wimey.


	2. Chapter 2

As I dragged my feet as best as I could down the street, my head was spinning and I just couldn’t focus on what had just occurred. Strange things like this happened a lot with the Doctor, but never to me, the Doctor was the most seasoned time traveller so it was bound to happen to her the most. A lot of the time it just made me laugh, and the Doctor to end up blabbering like an idiot with excitement. However, this time, seemed different. It wasn’t a fleeting comment, a random interaction that made no sense but would later, this felt more serious, more…committed.  
I sighed as I finally reached the TARDIS and climbed back inside; carrying the large folder I had been given. It didn’t take her long to just leave me be after that talk, she just up and left, saying good luck as she went. I had no choice but to go to the Doctor for help.  
Once I had carefully navigated the wrong way round gravity inside, due to how the TARDIS had landed, I felt a small bit of relief course through me. The lights were back on, the TARDIS breathing once again, it was ok. Maybe we could just leave and forget about everything.  
“She alright?” I asked.  
“Oh good, you’re back! What’s that in your hand? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost” she asked, homing in on the folder I held.  
“Erm, something I was given…” I said, staring at the folder.  
“Well, the TARDIS is fine, she came round not long ago, should be able to find out who bumped us in a bit!” she explained as I sat down, suddenly feeling unwell again, she sat next to me “You sure you’re ok?”  
“I don’t know” I handed her the file “I’ve been given a job at a company…”  
The Doctor laughed, flicking through the pages excitedly.  
“I only sent you out for a bit!” she giggled.  
“My future self gave them my CV” that stopped the Doctor in her tracks, now listening to me carefully. I explained everything to her and she nodded, understanding why I felt how I felt. It’s a weird and daunting experience. She smiled encouragingly at me, patting my shoulder as she stood back up.  
“Why don’t we come back to that then? Let’s go get an ice cream from the best place I know!” she said, beginning to press buttons, pull levers which brought the familiar whirring noise I knew. Relief flooded me again, if only briefly, as the TARDIS stuttered for a second then stopped. The Doctor looked around confused, but the TARDIS wouldn’t budge.  
“What’s going on?” I asked, running over to the screen.  
“She won’t take off, something’s keeping us here…I’ll run some diagnostics” she quickly typed as I watched anxiously. Not being able to leave made me want to leave even more. The TARDIS beeped as the results came through and the Doctor looked serious “This is a bigger problem than I expected”  
“What do you mean?”  
“See that?” she pointed to a wobbly line on the screen “That’s us, and this? That’s another time traveller”  
“How can you tell?” I asked.  
She zoomed in to the lines and showed the detail.  
“All of this that surrounds the lines? That’s time travel energy, I’m not sure if that’s what’s keeping us here, I’ll have to keep digging for that, but there’s another time traveller here with us that I need to find and stop” she explained “We may be here a while, so it could be a possibility your future self knew you’d be stuck here so gave you something to keep you from being bored”  
“But why a boy band? I hate those kind of things, same old music and tracks, lyrics just as hollow as the rest and don’t even get me started on the dancing and music videos” I said.  
“Your future self knows more about you than you do right now” The Doctor said “Come on, Lyra, why not just give it a try? Go have a look at that folder first at least, I’m not just going to leave you alone on this”  
She smiled kindly at me and I sighed, smiling back at her.  
“Alright, but this boy band ain’t getting far” I chuckled, heading back to the file and sitting down to browse.  
“It may be the fact that they don’t make it, therefore causing something else that is meant to happen, wibbly wobbly!” she grinned, starting her own tests.  
I chuckled, opening the pages and beginning to read. The Doctor could have been right, I could have put myself up to this knowing I would fail miserably, there must have been something bad that needed to happen in order for the actual future to take place. Must be. I felt my confidence grow, weirdly, inside me as I read what the lady had left me.  
‘There are seven boys we want you to recruit. I have included their pictures, names, a brief profile as to why we want them, and obviously where to find them. They’re all in Seoul so don’t worry, should be easy to find. Get them to sign the contract I have also included. Once that’s done, bring them together to meet and think up a name. After that, get them to debut.’  
Hmm, seemed like a big leap from coming up with a name to suddenly get them to debut. Was there a process in making a song? Did they only need one? Or a few? Weren’t boy bands given songs to perform? Or was that Western boy bands? Meh. Even if I didn’t figure it out, what would be would be.  
I flicked over the page to start getting an idea on the boys. Thankfully, they were all in the city, being able to find them all would be easy enough. As I turned the page, I swear I recognised the face of the first guy. His smile revealed dimples and his name was Kim Namjoon. Again, the name rang bells. I moved on to the next, recognising him too. And the next. And the next. In fact, all of them I knew I had seen their faces somewhere before. That’s when it all clicked. The name of the company. The boys names and faces. In my time of 2019 these guys were huge. I’d seen them advertised for interviews, their tour, some of my friends adored them. Ah shit. I felt sick all over again.  
“We may have another problem” I said.  
“Hmm?” The Doctor said, turning her attention back to me.  
“I’m supposed to form BTS…” I said, feeling that nausea coming back.

It had easily been an hour since I discovered what my future self had given me. And yet, my stomach just wouldn’t settle. The Doctor had given me a paper bag to breathe in to, even handed me some water too, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around this giant task ahead of me. I so couldn’t do this. It wasn’t a fixed point in time, which meant I could change the course of the entire future, not just of the boys themselves, but of their fans too. Oh God. There was just so much pressure. There was no way in hell I could do this. It was way too much.  
“How you feeling?” The Doctor talking to me and feeling my forehead snapped me out of my doubts. I wasn’t alone. The Doctor wasn’t going to leave. She was going to help.  
“Yeah, could be better, not gonna lie” I sighed.  
“You can do this” she said, taking a seat next to me “I really wish you had more confidence in yourself, you’ve been travelling with me for what? Six years now? What have you achieved in that time?” I shrugged at her “You have done so much, you’ve saved so many lives, you’ve changed loads too, you even stopped a war from starting as well, remember that? I was so wrapped up in other issues I didn’t even realise what the Captain was doing” she nudged my shoulder “but you did, and you convinced him not to do anything, that takes guts! I also remember when you went against what I told you to do, you said I was wrong, standing up to enemies is easy, but standing up to your friends…now that’s true bravery” she smiled at me “Lyra, I believe you can do this, all you have to do is take one step at a time”  
I nodded. She was right. At that point I wanted to just leave, not have to deal with this, but if the Doctor believed in me, maybe I could do it. I also knew future me wouldn’t have done this to me without a reason. I took a deep breath and smiled at the Doctor.  
“One step at a time” I glanced down at the file still in my lap “first step, find these guys and get them to sign this contract”  
“There you go” The Doctor grinned, jumping to her feet “And while you do that, I’m going to find out who this other traveller is!”  
My first task, I could do this.


	3. Chapter 3

I couldn’t do this. How in the world was I meant to do this?  
The first guy to recruit was Kim Namjoon, and it said in the file he did underground rapping at a club in the city centre. Easy enough to find said club. However, finding him inside was a task and a half! For one thing, I couldn’t even get in through the front door, security was having absolutely none of it with me. I had borrowed the Doctor’s psychic paper, but they didn’t seem convinced by my story and asked me to keep moving. Great. This was only guy number one of seven to get, if this was what the rest were going to be like, I knew I was going to need a stiff drink that night. They were flat out refusing Idol companies such as Big Hit to enter, apparently they’d had enough and just wanted the club to be a place to perform, not to sign people. Proper ‘underground’.   
Instead of trying again with security, I thought maybe it was best to just go through the back. Keeping the psychic paper in my hand ready, I made my way to what I guessed was stage door. Seeing the club staff there checking people coming in and out, I took a deep breath and put on my best façade. New story, new approach.  
“Oh hi, I’m here to check the issue with the ladies bathroom?” I said, flashing the psychic paper with a kind smile.  
“Excuse me? Oh you mean the ones upstairs? Go on through, thanks!” the stage door guy said, gesturing me to enter. These places always had trouble with their toilets.  
Success! Now to find this guy. I guessed he must have been in the dressing room area somewhere, or at least generally backstage. Thankfully my first job at the Theatre came in handy. Clubs and theatres had similar layouts, so I let my instincts guide me around until I found some of the dressing rooms. However, Namjoon was nowhere to be found. Ugh. It said he performed here frequently, almost every night, so I thought it was a sure fire attempt to come here.   
Not giving up just yet I began asking around. The other rappers and performers were more than happy to help, one told me he was there tonight, he had just left to go practice on the stage. Using a different story to cover myself when they began asking why I was looking for him, one guy very kindly showed me to stage right. Sure enough, there he was, going through his performance.  
“Thanks so much, I appreciate it” I smiled widely, thanking the kind man.  
The guy bowed, smiling back and returned back to his dressing room.  
It didn’t take long for Namjoon to notice me watching. To be fair, he was pretty good at rapping. It wasn’t my kind of music, but I could definitely appreciate talent when I saw it. It was no wonder the company wanted to hire him.  
I smiled as warmly as I could as he came off stage.  
“You’re very good” I said.  
“Erm…thanks?” he said a bit hesitant. Was he shy?   
“Kim Namjoon, yes?” I asked and he nodded “Fantastic, look, I know I’m not meant to be here, but hey, you’re extremely talented so” I handed him Big Hit’s business card.  
“You want to sign me?” he asked, a little shocked at my offer.  
“Yeah! We have this new group we’re putting together and we really want you to be a part of it” I smiled more “I know you’ll be an asset to the team” and I meant it. Boy bands may be just over produced nonsense, but I had heard good things about BTS. Maybe they did hire talented boys.  
“You know, this club doesn’t allow…” he started.  
“Oh yeah I know, I was a little naughty to be honest and snuck in, I just had to hear for myself what you could do and…well seeing that, I’m coloured impressed and I know we want you, I have the contract if you’re willing!” I brought it out, pen and all. Although, Namjoon still looked hesitant about it all, but he did take the contract to look over.  
I stood there slightly awkwardly while he read through it. That’s when I spotted security from before. Ah shit. I needed to leave. Now.   
“So erm, you up for it?” I asked.  
Namjoon smiled kindly at me, his dimples appearing.  
“I’d love to” he said, signing the papers as security got closer and closer.  
As soon as he had finished his signature, I snatched the paper out of his hands and gave him a final business card with the date for a couple of days’ time and a meeting place.  
“Be there to meet your band mates! See ya then Namjoon!” I smiled, quickly making my exit back through stage door.   
I dodged through the other performers, security hot on my tail, but never quite reaching me. Ha. Plenty of experience running away dude, you ain’t getting me. I smiled to myself as I reached the exit door and took off down the street.  
“See ya!” I shouted to the security guy as I ran off into the distance. One down, six more to go.

I decided to keep running for a little longer than I needed to, purely because I loved it so much. It made me feel free, and excitement from running from something exhilarated me. It felt good. But it was always good to look where you were going, which I was not. I only just managed to dodge the scooter that almost ploughed into me. I jumped onto the curb and stopped to catch my breath. The scooter stopped and pulled over too, the guy dismounting quickly.  
“Should watch where you’re going” the guy said, slowly removing his helmet “are you ok?” he asked. Wait. I swore this was one of the guys I needed to sign. Min Yunki? I think that was his name.  
“Yeah, I’m fine, sorry that was my fault” I explained, still a little out of breath.  
“You seem to be in a hurry, did you need a lift somewhere?” he offered. Wow. That was generous of him.  
“Oh no, I’ve actually found what I was looking for” I smiled, bowing to him “My name is Lyra, I work at Big Hit, I believe my predecessor sent you a contract to sign?”  
The guy looked completely dumbfounded. Cute. Well, made things a little easier. Another found.  
“You are Min Yunki right?” I asked to kind of shake him out of his trance.  
“Huh? Oh yes, that’s me and yes I was just, sorry I was just on my way to hand it back” he said, grabbing the contract out of his scooters bag. He handed it to me with an incredibly small smile.   
“Thanks, glad to have you on board, did you have any questions?” I offered.  
“Not really, just when will I be meeting the others?” he asked.  
“Ah yes!” I pulled out a business card and wrote on the time and meeting place “I’ll see you then!”  
“Thank you, I look forward to writing songs for you” he bowed as I left. 

My whole day was taken up by finding each of the guys. I managed to find Jung Hoseok back where I saw the street dancer. He ended up being that street dancer, which, yet again, made things a whole lot easier. He was so happy and enthusiastic I couldn’t help but smile and get excited with him too. Him signing the contract was the easiest.   
To be honest, most were easy to sign up, Jin was only difficult due to his massive ego about his own looks. Something I knew I was going to struggle and clash with. I hated people like that. Sure he was attractive, but him knowing it all too well didn’t help. Jimin was timid but he seemed more than happy to sign. Similar with Taehyung, all I had to do was buy him some street food and he was set! My kind of guy.  
However, I knew the final one would be difficult. Jungkook. He was the youngest and I just couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that Big Hit wanted him. He had been to an open audition and my predecessor heard him singing and immediately wanted him. But he was so young. Why was it like this in Asia? So many times I had watched Britain’s Got Talent or The Voice or something similar and such young kids would go on to get famous. Most of the time, they didn’t get far purely because our culture didn’t really allow it. In Asia though, it was so common place. It just felt so wrong. This was going to be difficult…for me.  
I stared at the school in front of me, waiting for them to finish class so I could try and get him to sign. Even if I was hesitant, he was a part of the group, despite his young age. I had to do this.   
The bells rang and I searched around for him, which thankfully, he kind of stood out like a sore thumb. I didn’t even think he noticed the girls all around him drooling over him, whispering to their friends about him, ah to be young and attractive and popular.   
As soon as he reached the gates, I happily greeted him.  
“Jungkook? Hi, my name is Lyra, I do believe you went to one of our open auditions at Big Hit?” I said, moving to one side where it was slightly quieter.  
“I did, yes” he said.  
“Well, we have an opening in a new boy group for you to join! But don’t feel like you have to if…”  
“No no, I’d love to! It would be an honour!” he said enthusiastically. No stopping this one.  
“But, wouldn’t you rather focus on school? Go to university and that?” I asked honestly. I couldn’t stop myself.  
“I want to become an Idol, that’s why I auditioned, and I can’t believe you guys want me” he smiled brightly. I sighed heavily. It was something I couldn’t change, but as their manager, I knew I’d be keeping an eye on Jungkook more than the rest.  
Of course he signed the contract.

I slumped down onto the sofa back inside the TARDIS. My feet were killing me and my head thumped from everything that had happened. I just wanted to curl up into a ball and never leave here again. But, day after tomorrow, I’d have to meet all the boys and come up with a name together. And an entire plan on what to do. One step at a time. I had to remember that. Thing was, now that I was past that part of the plan, I was hurtling towards the part where I had no idea where to go or what to do. Panic started to set in.  
“How was today?” The Doctor asked.  
“Alright, I guess, managed to get them all signed up and filed away the paperwork” I said “Now just got to wait until day after tomorrow to get them all together”  
“Means you have time tomorrow to come up with the rest of the plan” she smiled at me. She knew. She knew me all too well. She was also right. I did have the entire day tomorrow to think up what to do next and I was panicking for no good reason!  
“I can do that, did you find anything else out today?” I asked.  
“Nah, they’ve vanished without a trace now, I know they’re still here because if they had left, I would have known about it, but nothing, so they’re clearly hiding right now” she explained “I’m going for a walk around to see if I can get anything”  
“Asking the locals?”  
“Exactly, you hungry? I’m starving!” she said, taking my hand and pulling me to my feet again “my treat! Let’s try some street food!”  
That sounded like a damn good idea to me.


	4. Chapter 4

I sat at the TARDIS console almost pulling hair out. How did the Doctor and myself manage to use the entire day yesterday for investigating? Now I only had an hour until I had to go meet the boys with no research. We didn’t even find anything of that much use while out! It was pointless! And here I was sitting, panicking!  
The TARDIS sighed gently.  
“I know that feeling darlin’” I sighed too “you could at least help me, I mean what do boybands over here do? Do they produce their own stuff? They don’t in the UK”  
The TARDIS beeped at me and lit up the main screen.  
“What?” I pulled the screen round and smiled “So you do listen, thanks! I can totally use this”  
My grin grew as I read more and more about how idol groups came together. First they had to form, obviously, they needed to register a name, then they tended to create a few songs to perform. Right, so a few songs, not just one for one big hit. Made sense. So, a few songs, that meant they needed dance routines. Problem was, I knew not all of them were dancers… A dance teacher would be needed. Good, this was coming along nicely, at least I had enough to go on for this meeting!  
“Thanks TARDIS, I appreciate the help…even if you have a sort of Siri system that was just listening…thanks!” I smiled, grabbing the folder I was given and shot off to meet the boys. Just as I closed the door, the TARDIS beeped again, but I just took that as her saying ‘you’re welcome’ so simply ignored it.

The venue I had chosen wasn’t large, but it did have a private area for us to talk and have some food. Meant it should have been easier for the boys to get to know each other. Should have. Instead I sat at the head of the table staring at a bunch of young boys who were so awkward that no-one was talking. They weren’t even looking at each other. Really? I guessed this was going to have to be my job as a manager to take the lead. Even though, in my time, I was their age.   
“Literally, no-one going to speak first?” I asked “Come on guys, got to introduce yourselves to each other” I smiled kindly as best I could.  
One of them raised their hand.  
“Yeah? Taehyung you want to go first?” I asked hopefully.  
“Erm, I was just wondering when food was coming…” I sighed at his answer.  
“Fine, I’ll do introductions” I said a little firmer.  
“Manager, I’ll go first” Namjoon piped up finally, probably seeing my frustration.  
“Thank you, Namjoon, go ahead” I said “Also food will be coming any minute so please, sit tight” Taehyung smiled at me.  
“Hello, I am Kim Namjoon, I am 18 years old and my birthday is 12th September, born 1994” he said proudly. I smiled to him and looked to the one sitting next to him.  
“Go on, Seokjin, your turn, probably easier if we just go round the table now since Namjoon started”  
He nodded and happily gave the same information as Namjoon did. Slowly, but surely, each member introduced themselves, each one more confident than the last. Once Yunki had introduced himself, I sighed a little in relief. Maybe then the awkwardness would lift, even just slightly.  
“Great, see? Wasn’t so bad” I said, about to move on to naming the group when Namjoon piped up again.  
“Erm, Manager, you haven’t introduced yourself” he said and the boys nodded.  
Huh, guess they were right.  
“So I haven’t, well, ok, Hi, I’m Lyra, I’m going to be your Manager, I’m 26 years old and my birthday is 6th October 1992”  
“Wait, I was born in 1992 and I’m not 26…” Jin said. Ah shit.  
“Ah sorry, that’s…my sister’s birthday, sorry…” I said, desperately trying to do the maths in my head.  
“If you’re 26 you should have been born in 1987” Namjoon answered for me.  
“That’s it, yep, 1987, 6th October” I chuckled to myself and quickly changed the subject “Alright, so now introductions are over, let’s get on with other stuff, oh look foods here too, perfect timing” I sat back, trying to regulate my heartbeat that was running away with my nerves. Hopefully they’d just think of me as a little weird. I mean, everyone did, nothing new there.   
As the food was placed on the table, I zoned out as the boys finally began talking to each other about possible names. My eyes moved to the window across the room, not really focusing on anything, just watching the world go by. That is, until I saw someone I recognised. A girl. A girl I had met a while ago on a different planet. I stood suddenly, causing everyone to stare at me. I didn’t care. This girl couldn’t have been here.  
“Manager?” I heard Yunki speak, but I ignored him and ran out of the restaurant.   
“She’s a little…weird, isn’t she?” Jimin asked, the rest nodding.  
How the hell was she on Earth? Me and the Doctor had left her to the hands of her people to decide her punishment. There was no way she could have travelled here. Was she the other traveller? But how? I ran out and frantically looked around. Where had she gone? No. She can’t have vanished. She couldn’t have. But I just couldn’t find her. The crowd of people walking was too dense to see through. I lost her. The Doctor. The Doctor had to know…  
“Manager?” I felt Jimin grab my arm gently, causing me to come back to reality, to realise what I had done “Are you ok?”  
I wasn’t sure. I swear I had just seen a ghost. Maybe I wasn’t over what had happened all those months ago. Swallowing my emotions, I forced a smile to Jimin.  
“Yeah, I’m fine, just thought I saw someone I knew, come on, food’s getting cold” I said, ushering him back inside, but taking one last glance for her. Nothing.   
Sat back down, I forced myself back into reality, my emotions back deep down inside me where they belonged.   
“I really like this name” Hoseok pointed to one bit of paper. Wow, they had jumped ahead of me already. Some had written down ideas as soon as they had signed the contract. Smart.  
“I do too” Jimin joined in.  
As the boys talked, I heard Yunki whisper to me.  
“Are you ok? You’ve gone pale, Manager” he offered me some water, which I took. I gulped the water and smiled kindly at him. He seemed an incredibly quiet person, and yet, he noticed what was going on around him the most.  
“I’m fine, honestly, thanks” he smiled slightly and nodded, joining in the discussion.  
Taking one last deep breath, I quickly wrote down the name they would eventually use and placed it on the table.  
“I think you guys should go for this” I said.  
“Bangtan Sonyeondan?” They all looked at it in disgust.  
“What kind of a name is that? We’re not boy scouts” Namjoon said.  
“I like it, has a nice ring to it” I said.  
“Yeah, but, none of us like it, so that’s out” Jin said, reaching to grab the paper.  
“Erm, no, wait a minute, I really like this name” I said, grabbing it before he could “At least give it a chance”  
“So we have to give a chance to a name we don’t like, but not the others we do?” Namjoon defended the other names.  
I didn’t want to fight. That was the last thing I wanted, but if they didn’t have this name, that would change the future into something I didn’t know. I wouldn’t be able to tell if it was a good thing or a bad thing. It had to be this name.   
“I’m putting my foot down as Manager here, we’re going to try this name for a bit, give it time, it’ll grow on you” I said, taking the rest of the names and pocketing them.  
“You said we were meeting today to come up with names and a plan of action…but in reality you’d already thought of the name and didn’t want our input, even though we’re the ones who are going to be using it, not you” Namjoon said firmly.  
“That’s not true” I said, even though their name had already been decided.   
“No, it is and you know it, what else has already been done? Have you written and made our first song already? I mean with a manager like you, are we going to get to have our input? Are we even going to debut?” Namjoon ranted his feelings out.   
“Excuse me? I am trying my best here” I said.  
“Why don’t we calm down, we can finalise the name later” Yunki said.  
“I chose that name because I know you guys can be strong, almost bulletproof, no matter what challenges you come up against” I explained as best as I could.  
“And yet you’re willing to just suddenly walk out like that?” Namjoon jabbed back.  
“…” my emotions I had hit before came raging up. My eyes stung from the tears that threatened to appear. I swallowed hard.   
“We are the group, not you, you’re just the manager, you’re meant to manage us” he said.  
I had to get out of there.  
“Meeting done, I have your numbers, I’ll contact you about finding a dorm later” I grabbed everything I had and left.  
I understood his frustration. His pain. I had found out earlier that Idol groups did make their own content unlike the UK pop groups. They so desperately wanted to do that. And I was taking that away from them. All because of what I already knew about the future. I shouldn’t have let it cloud my judgement, I should have let things take its course and help guide them through it. Instead, I was doing the opposite, I was babying them, which meant they couldn’t develop as a group, as friends. It had only been a couple of days and I was already failing them.  
Almost running back the whole way, I fought back my tears. Right now, all I could do was find a dorm for them…and talk to the Doctor about the girl I saw.

“Lyra, that’s impossible” The Doctor said “after what Kin did back then, there is no way she could be on Earth now”  
“I definitely saw her, Doctor” I said.  
“She was left on that planet with no family, no friends, no nothing, that was her peoples decision for punishment, what she did was…rather what she did to you, in my opinion, was unforgiveable, she had nothing, meaning there is nothing that could get her here to Earth” the Doctor explained “I think you may be panicking a little too much”  
I slumped and sighed heavily.  
“Maybe I’m not over it” I said, sitting back on the sofa.  
“And that’s ok, it takes time to heal from being heartbroken, you have to give it time” she said, rubbing my back “why don’t you go do some dorm searching? Could help focus your mind on something else”  
I nodded and headed to my room. She was right, once again, distraction was best method. And I would prove to the boys that I can be a good manager. Maybe.  
What I didn’t see was the worry on the Doctor’s face as she turned back to the TARDIS console. The beeping earlier, was the TARDIS’ scan finishing. It had found the other time traveller and it was Kin. Somehow she had managed to get to Earth, and I had seen her earlier, I had only confirmed it with the Doctor who decided to keep it a secret from me. For now.


	5. Chapter 5

“And there is plenty of room out the back to have social gatherings…” the guy who was showing me round potential dorms explained. I glanced out the back door as he spoke, there wasn’t any space, not for seven lads and myself. This was the fourth place I had visited and another two to view afterwards. This guy was just determined to bore me to death with every single one, saying how amazing and spacious it was. They weren’t. They were all tiny. Absolutely no way seven guys could stay there together.  
“I think it’s a no on this one mate, should we just head to the next one?” I suggested. I hated wasting his time on stuff I knew I wasn’t going to sign anything for. What was the point? I think he kind of appreciated it, because he smiled genuinely and nodded, no resisting or trying to convince me otherwise, just moved on. Actually, it could have been the culture of politeness, but I liked to think it was him being appreciative.  
Problem I had right now was the company’s producer was now on my back. Since I was technically a replacement and brand new, he’d finally made contact with me when he had received the boys contracts. He explained he was going to keep an eye on me and the group, that I had to be aware I was spending his money so this had to work. The pressure was already beginning to build, and the boys hadn’t even had their first dancing and singing practise together. I didn’t know how much practise they needed at this early stage in their career, were they only going to need a few weeks? Months? Over a year? I had no idea. And now with someone breathing down my neck, I didn’t like it. I was starting to hate this job. The pressure from the boss. The rudeness from the group themselves. Ugh. I had to keep pushing.   
Thankfully, the next place I went to view was actually pretty decent. The size was good, the number of bedrooms was perfect and there was genuinely space outside for socials. What made it even better was it location. It was sat on a hill, away from the hustle and bustle from the city, nice and quiet. The landlord could tell I liked it and happily brought me the lease for myself to sign and to send to my boss. I decided to take some photos to send to the boys in the newly made group chat, just so they could start organising rooms and such. Well, I thought they would. Instead, they decided to make it into a competition.  
Manager Lyra: There are four rooms in total, so six of you will have to pair up, but what do you guys think? Decent space and all :)  
Yunki: Really nice, I like it.  
Jimin: I do too, I don’t mind sharing either.  
Namjoon: But how do we decide who shares with who?  
Jin: Shouldn’t the oldest and most handsome get his own room?  
Namjoon: That’s not how it works  
Jungkook: We could just decide when we move in tomorrow? Rock, paper, scissors?  
Hoseok: Oh oh I like that idea! Let’s do that!  
Manager Lyra: Of course it’s down to a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors…  
Hoseok: Oh come on Manager, where’s your sense of fun?  
Jin: Obviously she lost it long ago!  
Manager Lyra: I’ll see you all tomorrow for moving day and practise!  
I signed off the chat and sighed heavily. It was going to be a long day tomorrow.

I was thankful I got the confirmation text the night before to say the boys could move in today, because stood here, watching seven guys sat on the sofa fighting over which room would be who’s over a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, I couldn’t imagine what it would have been like if they suddenly couldn’t move in. There would have been a major kick off. Not just from my boss but from the group too. Thank you Korea for being so smooth and fast with everything.  
I glanced at the clock in between games, they had one hour before their first dance practise. Meh, they had time to unpack a little…if this game would hurry up. It was between Hoseok and Jin, and yet they kept drawing every single time, causing both of them to laugh more and more. Even though this was meant to be used as a way of sorting rooms out, it was turning out to be a bonding session. Deep down, I think the rooms had been sorted long ago, now it was just fun to see who would win this battle. It was…nice. Hoseok’s smile was so sweet and genuine, Jin’s laugh was utterly contagious, easily causing the whole group to laugh along, even Yunki. I even felt myself smile a little at them.  
Yunki spotted me and waved me over from where I was standing.  
“Manager, why don’t you see who you can beat?” he asked. All the boys turned their attention to me. My smile quickly faded. Most of the boys didn’t like me, especially Namjoon, but maybe this would start building bridges…I was about to give in and join when my phone rang.  
“Excuse me, make sure you start unpacking” I said, quickly leaving the living room.  
“Knew she wouldn’t join” I heard Jin say as I left.  
“Hello?” I said, ignoring his comment.  
“Ah good, fast pick up, I need you to come to the office, you’re behind on paperwork” my boss explained.  
“What? But I gave you a bunch of papers last night” I said “the boys also have their first dance practise and I kinda would like to…”  
“Tough, they’ll have to do it themselves, drop them off and come to the office, now” he said, hanging up the phone.  
I sighed, I was doing that a lot recently, and pocketed my phone. Well, if the group were going to hate me, I may as well do it in style. We’d never be friends, we’d never get on, I was their manager, they were an up and coming idol group. That was it. As soon as they debuted I would be gone. Again.  
Breaking the news that we had to leave for practise at that moment didn’t sit well with them.   
“What? But you said we had an hour to unpack” Jin said.  
“We’re going to be too tired to unpack after practise” Jimin pitched in.  
“Can we unpack tomorrow?” Namjoon asked.  
I had no idea. They had singing class in the morning, dancing again in the afternoon and other stuff to promote themselves. Jeez. My boss was really sucky.  
“You should do” I assured them as best as I could.  
They seemed to take it, so I bundled them into the van and took them down to the dance studio. Thankfully, the office wasn’t a long walk from there, so I parked the van and took the boys inside to their private room. The teacher I had hired greeted them, a little surprised to see them so early, but eager to get started. I quickly explained the situation and he nodded in understanding. Swiftly handing me their plan for teaching, I took a glance and put it away in my bag. Knowing the Doctor had helped me hire this guy, I knew the boys were in safe hands. I turned to leave but I saw them all so nervous, worried, as if they were, well, new to this. And I was leaving them. My heart tugged, I didn’t want to leave them, especially the young Jungkook who looked the most nervous. Shit. This whole job was a pile of shit. Could I just stay and say no to the boss? But then I could lose this job. Mess up the future. My mind and heart were torn. All over again. I could feel myself beginning to panic, my breathing was becoming difficult, my throat threatening to burn from the tears.  
“I’ll be back in a few hours” I said and quickly left, ignoring their shocked and hurt faces.  
The tears stung as I raced to the office. My boss was already there waiting for me.  
“You’re late” he said “and…are you crying?”  
“No, I’m fine, where are the papers?” I asked, sitting at my desk, finding the giant pile looming.  
“If you’re going to break this easily, maybe you should think about another job” he threatened.  
I firmly looked him in the eyes, refusing to break eye contact.  
“I said, I’m fine sir” he nodded and backed away, leaving me to my giant mountain of paperwork.  
Most of it was organising stuff for the group, including many things such as food shop allowances, hired teachers and trainers, musical equipment and so on. This was going to take a while, possibly even longer than their dance practise.

Setting an alarm to go get the boys was a good idea, I was on the phone to some important person somewhere when it went off. I ended the call and went to pick the boys up. Of course, I was greeting with tired and upset eyes. I wanted to help, but I didn’t know how. However, I did notice one of the guys limping, what had happened? It was only the first day. Once in the van, I was tempted to ask, but the cold glare I got from Namjoon shut me up instantly. We drove in silence.  
The next couple of days went by the same way. The boys had no time to unpack properly and were living off fast food or instant food. I dropped them off at practise then left to go to the office since the boss kept demanding it. I was tired. They were tired…and angry.   
When I dropped them off that night, I could tell Namjoon was at breaking point and wanted to say something. Alone. Not in front of the others. My head was pounding and I knew I was going to snap too, but things had to be said. I watched and prepared as the others disappeared into the house, leaving me and Namjoon next to the van.  
“That’s the third day we’ve had to cope without you as a manager” Namjoon said. Here we go.  
“I know” was all I could say.  
“You do realise your responsibilities right? You’re meant to be looking after us, not sending us off to the babysitters! Poor Jimin twisted his ankle on the first day and I insisted he tell you, but no, he didn’t want to trouble you, didn’t want you to think he couldn’t do it” he explained and I couldn’t help but look at Jimin through the large window “you say you have paperwork to do, but seriously, who has that much paperwork meaning you can’t come watch us? Help us? You’ve also not made us time to get the house sorted which you said you would yesterday, this is a joke, you’re a joke!”  
“I am trying my best!” I snapped, the anger inside me bubbling out “I haven’t been able to come help out with practise due to my boss breathing down my neck, giving me pointless paperwork day in and day out to keep me at my desk, I did notice that Jimin had hurt himself and you have no idea how much I wanted to help but I didn’t know how, why?! I’m not a trained, professional idol manager! I’ve never managed a group before! I never wanted this job! I never wanted to be here in the first place but here I am” the tears spilled out “The minute I crashed here was the minute I wanted to leave and yet I was shoved into this role without any kind of explanation or help, you have your battles and I have my own, I am trying my best in a bad situation and you are not making it any easier”  
“If you don’t like this job so much, why don’t you just leave? I’m sure we could find another manager, a way better one, a more caring one” Namjoon spat.  
“I wish I could” everything went silent. I saw the boys staring from the living room window from the corner of my eye “Believe me, if a spaceship could come rescue me right now, I’d take it in a heartbeat and get off this God forsaken planet, I’m so done with all of this” I gestured around me, backing away “I’m done” I breathed, turning and walking away.


	6. Chapter 6

The Doctor was the one to find me. She obviously got worried when I didn’t come back to the TARDIS that night. I needed to calm down, I needed to think, I needed to breathe. I’d felt like I had been suffocating the entire time I was back on Earth. After finally letting out how I felt, the relief and the weight from my shoulders seemed to dissipate. It was the first time I had felt normal since we crashed. And yet, I knew we couldn’t just up and leave like I wanted us to. We were stuck here until the Doctor found out what was going on.   
Alone, I sat on a bench in the park, just staring up at the night sky, a little upset I couldn’t see any stars. The Doctor didn’t say anything when she sat down, just handed me a steamed bun she had bought and sat in silence. The steam rose from the bun, wafting the smell into my face, making it hard to resist. I couldn’t help myself. The bun tasted so good, I wasn’t sure if it was because I hadn’t eaten in hours or if it was genuinely good, but I didn’t care. I wolfed it down.  
“You have such little confidence in yourself, Lyra” The Doctor stated. I stared at her, the bun finished. “And I think I know why”  
“Why?” I asked.  
“Because you’re so desperate to fit in, you put everything, everyone and everywhere on such a high pedestal you think you can’t reach it, even though everywhere we’ve been that’s needed our help, you’ve handled it all in your stride…by just being yourself” she explained “Your brain is constantly thinking how you can help that you start to over think, meaning you panic because you believe whatever you do won’t do anything and yet when you’re just yourself and do what you think is right, no matter how little it may seem, you go above and beyond”  
It took a few minutes for it to sink in. The whole idea of managing such a high profile boy band was daunting, and I genuinely didn’t think I could do it. And yet…I had taken on the Daleks on my own and survived. Not many people could say that. How was it I could take on deadly aliens and not an every day job?  
“I snapped…my boss is making me do useless stuff” I explained.  
“And since when do you take orders? You don’t even take them from me when I ask you to stay put” the Doctor chuckled.  
“Since I could lose the job” I said.  
“In a small, unknown company? Lyra, I don’t think you realise how much they actually need you, more than you need them” The Doctor said “Be you, Lyra, stop trying to be someone you’re not! I thought you learned that a while ago with Kin”  
“I thought I did too, maybe I just needed a reminder” I smiled, drying my eyes as best as I could.  
“Speaking of Kin…” The Doctor said.  
“It is her, isn’t it? The other time traveller?” I asked and the Doctor nodded “Do you know how she’s here?”  
“Possibly a time agent found her and she’s using their time device, illegally obviously, keep an eye out, we don’t know what she’s up to just yet” she warned.  
“But it could be me she’s after”  
“It’s possible, and most likely, but we don’t know what she wants with you yet”  
“Revenge” I said simply “she almost took away a lot from me, but I took everything from her, she’ll want revenge for that”  
“She had a plan, she was manipulative and cunning, using you for something…just, be careful” she said and smiled.  
“I will, but first things first, I need to apologise to the boys, and I think I know how I can start”

First thing I had to do was have a firm word with my boss. Giving me mountains upon mountains of unnecessary paperwork was ridiculous, how was I meant to produce a boy group without any interaction? Possibly sorting a couple of days during the week for just paperwork would be fine, but I had to stop being such a pushover. I certainly wasn’t like that with the Doctor, so why now? I had to stop being so scared of the future, making sure it comes true, making sure I don’t lose my job. Woman up.   
The boss certainly was taken aback by my forwardness the next day. I had faced the boys that morning by taking them to singing practise as usual, leaving them as usual, not saying anything. My apology to them would be that night. Right now, my office time had to be cut. The producer did argue with me, saying it was my job to be behind the desk most of the time, only dipping my head in to check on the boys rarely. Of course I disagreed, insisting that’s not how I worked. Remembering what the Doctor had told me, they needed me more than I needed them. The hiring process was hard and long, they’d rather make what they had already work than find someone else.   
I didn’t ask at that point, I demanded I would do maximum three days at the office a week to do paperwork. And if I was on top of it all, I didn’t have to come in again until the next week. It was either that, or I quit. I needed to spend time with the boys, get to know them, understand their health, their needs, if I did that, I knew they could produce some amazing stuff. This was a creative industry, we had to be allowed to be creative. When he saw I wasn’t budging, this whole attitude empowering me, he backed down and agreed. Since I had already done my quota that week, it meant I could leave and do other things. Such as, unpack for the guys.

Jeez, they all had a lot of stuff. Thankfully, their more private stuff, had already been put away, but general clothes, trinkets and other such items were still packed away. I was determined to make this dorm more like a home for them. It did take me the entire day to do, I even went out and bought lots of fresh food to fill the fridge and freezer. No more instant noodles! The living room was tidied and organised. Plates washed, floor hoovered, everything. For outside, I bought blankets and chairs for them to use, and of course some simple lighting. I knew deep down that was partly for me to come out at night, but maybe one of the boys would like it too.  
After checking the clock, I realised they would be finishing up now, and yet I wasn’t quite finished. Damn. I wanted it to be perfect. But I also wanted to go fetch them. I only needed another ten minutes to do this second bathroom then I’d be done…I sighed. I couldn’t leave them waiting, that would only anger them more. The bathroom could wait.  
I jumped in the van and happily drove to the studio.  
Feeling a lot more confident in myself, I almost power walked into the studio and headed straight to their practise room at the back. However, I was instantly met with the teacher who looked worried.  
“Ah good, you’re finally here” he said.  
“What’s happened?” I asked. As soon as the teacher opened the door, I saw Jimin on the floor clutching his ankle, the rest of them gathered around looking worried “Jimin…”  
“He took a tumble” the teacher explained and turned to face them “I’m sorry, I should have been more aware…”  
“No no, this isn’t your fault, it’s mine” I admitted “I should be here to watch” I went over to Jimin, asking the others to back off. They all did, except Namjoon. Naturally. Whatever. I knelt down and smiled kindly at Jimin “What the heck did you do?”  
“Lost my footing” he seemed embarrassed. Oh darlin’, no, don’t be embarrassed. He was clearly trying to cover up his earlier injury, not wanting to reveal to me just yet. That was ok. I’m sure he would tell me when he was ready.  
“Mind if I take a look?” I asked.  
“Are you a medical professional now?” Namjoon asked.  
“I asked Jimin the question, not you” I said firmly, I turned back to Jimin, smiling again.  
He hesitated, but moved his ankle closer to me.   
“Thanks” I carefully hovered my hand over his ankle. Alright, it was certainly warm, and I could clearly see swelling, he’d at least pulled a muscle. “I’m going to lift it gently to take your shoe and sock off” I slowly lifted his leg under his calf and removed what I said I would. Swelling was only in the ankle, could mean numerous things, but I had to check he hadn’t broken anything. I placed my palm against the bottom of his foot “can you push against my hand?”  
Jimin nodded, and pushed but winced as he did.  
“Ok ok, can you move it up away from my hand?” I asked.  
He nodded again and did. He still winced, but not as bad. I got him to move his foot in a circular motion also, which he did easily. Thank God, it wasn’t broke. Twisted, maybe even sprained, something for me to keep an eye on.  
“Nothing broken” I said happily.  
“How do you know?” Namjoon asked.  
I stood and faced him.  
“You can’t physically move something if it’s broken, he can move it in all directions, he’s good” I explained “Can you help me lift him please? I can bandage it up at the dorm”  
Namjoon hesitated, but moved down to help Jimin to stand.  
“Don’t put weight on it, lean on myself and Namjoon, ok? Let’s get you back to the dorm” I said, pulling his arm around my neck “Go get in the van guys”  
“Manager, do you want me to…” Yunki asked.  
“I’m ok, just go open the van for me please” he nodded and walked on ahead.

Thankfully, it was pretty easy to get Jimin in the van and back inside the dorm. He was so light and with Namjoon’s somewhat willingness to help did make it easier. Once inside the living room, I sat Jimin down on the sofa and brought a stool round for him to keep his foot elevated. Deep down, I was a little sad I didn’t see the boys’ reaction to the dorm being fully unpacked, but Jimin was my priority.  
I grabbed the first aid box and some frozen peas I had bought earlier. Ice packs I could make later, right now he just needed something to bring the swelling down. Straddling the stool, I sat in front of his ankle and placed a towel over his ankle, followed by the pack of frozen peas.  
“Ah, cold” Jimin jumped.  
“It’s meant to be” I smiled, getting my phone out “keep this on for five minutes, then take it off for ten” I set a timer for five minutes “keep it elevated”  
“…thanks” he said, finally smiling at me.  
“No problem”  
“MANAGER UNPACKED?!” I heard Hoseok shout through the dorm.  
“NO WAY, SHE’S DONE MY STUFF TOO!” Jin joined in.  
“You unpacked for us?” Jimin asked.  
“Yep, I also got you food and other stuff” I explained.  
All the boys came rushing in to the living room and stared at me.  
“You did this?” Jin asked and I simply nodded.  
“Whoa, she’s even bough food” Jungkook pitched in, looking into the fridge.  
None of them spoke for a few seconds, a bit bewildered at it all. That made up for me missing their initial reaction.  
“Is this an apology?” Namjoon asked, all of them turning to me. I didn’t move from the stool as I spoke.  
“The start of one” I explained “I mean, I am sorry for everything these past few days, I have been a terrible manager, but what I said about my boss was true, he was keeping me hostage with paperwork, however that has been sorted now, maximum of three days a week I go in specifically for paperwork, the rest is for me to look after you guys”  
“You think doing the dorm is enough for an apology?” Namjoon said.  
“That’s why I said the start of one” I said honestly “I know it’ll take time for us to get along Namjoon, for me to prove to you guys that I can be a good manager, but I do promise from now on, I will be trying my absolute best to get you to debut and blow the audience away”  
They all looked at each other, most of them convinced but Namjoon still dubious.  
“I understand this won’t happen overnight, for any of us, but can we all at least give it a go?” I asked, finally standing, offering Namjoon my hand to shake “This has to be a give and take relationship, it won’t work if only one side agrees…”  
He eyed my hand, then looked at me in eyes. I felt like he was staring straight into my soul, making my heart beat faster. Please accept. I so wanted this to work. Eventually, after what felt like hours, he finally reached out and shook my hand.  
“Deal”


	7. Chapter 7

As soon as Namjoon had agreed, I visibly relaxed. Didn’t mean the hard work could stop, hardly, but it did mean he was on my side, for now. The battle of constantly butting heads with the group was over though, I wouldn’t be wading through mud now, the mud was gone. I made sure Jimin was comfortable before heading to the bathroom to finish the cleaning. The boys just laughed as to why, that I was determined to finish the house entirely before I made dinner for them all. They seemed to appreciate the gesture though. Leaving them to their own devices, I made a start on wiping everything down, before organising everyone’s toiletries.   
Namjoon knocked on the door not long after I had started.  
“Want some help?” he asked.  
“Erm, I mean, I’m almost done, but if you want to sure” I said.  
“What can I do?”  
“Could put all the shampoo’s, body washes and medicines away in the cupboard” I smiled as I finished wiping down the shower.  
He nodded and got to work.  
“I’m sorry” I heard him say quietly.  
“For what?”  
“For being so rude to you…being so harsh, I was just worried you didn’t care about us, that you’d just up and leave” he explained, turning to me “we all clearly really want this dream, and to be signed is a huge deal, I didn’t want us to lose it so early on”  
“You don’t have to apologise, your motives were genuine” I smiled kindly “and to be honest, I needed the kick up the butt”  
“I think we all did” he chuckled, showing me the cabinet “that ok?”  
The bottles were all organised by who owned them, and then by size, it wouldn’t stay that way for long I knew it. But it did look good.  
“Perfect” I grinned more.  
“What you said bef…” he started but we heard a commotion coming from the living room.  
We rushed in to find Jin and Hoseok arguing over a wok, Yunki and Taehyung arguing over vegetables, with Jungkook fussing over Jimin. I couldn’t help but smile and chuckle at the sight. I bet their future fans never really got to see this side…  
“Guys, come on, manager said she’d cook tonight” Namjoon joined in, taking the wok away from the two guys.  
I had something special right here. I understood and appreciated that now.

I thought I had made way too much food. Man was I wrong! The boys all devoured what I had whipped up, and more. All the plates were licked clean, and they all sat back on the sofa and the floor, nursing their food babies. Since we were all just sat in silence, I decided to try and bond with them a little more. Teaching them a simple, but fun, game of Fizz, Buzz was obviously an excellent choice. They took to it easily and we were laughing at Jin trying to contain himself every time someone messed up. I was right before, his laugh was contagious. None of us could resist joining in with the laughing when he did. When we eventually did manage to contain our laughs, we started a little Q&A session for each of us. It started off easy with favourite colour, favourite animal and such. But it soon got a little more serious.  
“Ever been in love?” Hoseok asked Jungkook. Of course everyone got excited over that. He was only 16, he didn’t really know what love was.  
“Does being in love with instant noodles count?” he chuckled.  
“No!” Hoseok smiled “That’s a different kind”  
“Oh come on, let Jungkook grow up a bit first” Namjoon said.  
“No, let him be young for a bit” I said “It’s nice to not know something, sometimes”  
“Have you ever been in love, Manager?” Hoseok turned the question to me.  
“…” I hesitated, it still hurt but I knew I would have to face this sooner or later “once, a while ago”  
“Was he all romantic? Brought you flowers and poems and such?” he asked.  
“You could say that” I said.  
“Did you meet him back in England? Did you break up because you moved here?” Taehyung pitched in this time.  
It was getting painful now. Even though they were assuming it was a guy and I played along hoping it wouldn’t hit a nerve just by distancing it a little…but it did. My first love, Kin, used me. She enticed me, romanced me, made me fall for her and for what? All to get to the Doctor and the TARDIS. I never stayed in one place long enough to form lasting relationships. To be honest, I never thought I wanted one for the longest time. My life with the Doctor was so much fun, exciting, it didn’t matter we kept travelling all over. Never staying in one place more than a couple of days. I’d had boyfriends when I was younger, and I knew deep down I was Bi so that didn’t matter, but I’d never been in love, I’d never found someone who wanted to be with me too. Not until Kin. So, to have that ripped away, to have been told it was all a lie, and then to rub salt into the wound, I had to intervene with her deadly plan to wipe out her entire home planet. All because of what happened when she was a child. She was cruel, manipulative and resentful. I had to take everything away from her in order to stop her.  
“Manager?” Jimin asked.  
“Sorry, spaced out there, yeah, distance did play a part, anyway, it’s late, another long day tomorrow so better get to bed guys” I said, smiling as best as I could as I stood.  
I saw Jin push Taehyung’s arm out of the corner of my eye. I think he knew he’d gone a little too far.  
“Manager, are you ok?” Jin asked “Taehyung didn’t mean…”  
“Oh no no, don’t be daft, he’s not done anything wrong!” I smiled “but you all will have done if you don’t go to bed soon”  
“You going to head home then? Did you want one of us to walk you?” Namjoon offered.  
“Nah, I’ll head off in a bit, think I’m going to sit outside for a bit” I smiled, grabbing a blanket to take with me.

The fresh, cold, evening air felt nice. I sat on the grass not too far from the living room door and I knew right now the boys would be blaming Taehyung for possibly upsetting me. Sure, I was upset, but he didn’t ask that question knowing it would hurt. It wasn’t intentional. How could he have known? After all, they have no idea that I’m not from this time period. That I’ve travelled through time and space. That the actual me was probably back home in England right now completely oblivious to all of this. That my best friend is an alien. That my run in with love was a hell of a lot more complicated than your average relationship on Earth. It also didn’t help that she was on Earth right now, planning something I knew I would have to intervene all over again. What the hell was she doing?  
That’s when I heard the living room door go. I quickly turned to see Yunki wrapped in a blanket also. He closed the door behind him and silently sat next to me. Neither of us spoke for quite some time. We just sat and stared up at the stars, the few we could see. It surprised me at how relaxing it was to just sit and chill, no talking, no pressure, just the stars.  
“That’s Aquarius there” he pointed up to the constellation “water bearer, made so by Zeus I do believe”  
“You know the stories of the stars?” I asked.  
“A few, the most obvious ones” he admitted.  
“It’s a shame we can’t see more” I said “Seeing entire galaxies is such a beautiful sight…”  
“We could hope for a blackout” he chuckled.  
“We could, but probably only see a few extra stars, if that” I said “Have you made a start on some music then?” I asked and he nodded.  
“A bit, I’m hoping since we have the afternoon tomorrow I could really get into it and produce a good few for us to use” he said.  
“Think I could hear them?” I asked.  
“…I dunno, maybe when they’re ready” he said.  
“Darlin’, how am I meant to help and give feedback if you won’t show me it until you think it’s ready? Half of the process is getting feedback from outside ears isn’t it?” I asked.  
“Well, maybe just you” he smiled.  
“Great, did you wanna hear a story I heard about the stars?” I asked.  
“You know them all?” he asked, a little stunned.  
“Nah!” I laughed “But my best friend knows a lot of stories” 

The first dance practise session I was a part of and poor Jimin couldn’t join in. Banished to a chair with his leg propped up, he watched everyone else learn new moves. I sat with him so he didn’t feel so lonely. The swelling on his ankle had gone way down over night thanks to the ice packs I had made him, but I still insisted he stay off it for another day or two with it elevated to make sure. Everyone seemed genuinely happier that day, even their teacher seemed more at ease. Things were finally looking up.  
Even though Jimin couldn’t join in, he was still watching and listening intently to the teacher, joining in with his arms to understand that part of the choreography.  
“You really love dancing” I stated.  
“I do, the next couple of days are going to be hard” he admitted.  
“Better to be safe than sorry, injuries, health, all of that need to be taken seriously” I said “if you don’t you can damage yourself beyond repair, I’m just sorry I wasn’t there yesterday to help prevent it”  
“…I Injured it on the first day” he finally opened up to me.  
“Huh?”  
“First day of practise I went over on it, but didn’t want to say anything in case…in case you didn’t want me to continue” he said.  
“Why on Earth would I unsign you?”  
“Because I couldn’t even get through the first day”   
“That’s ridiculous, there could have been any number of reasons you struggled that first day, nerves, not warming up properly…being over confident” I smiled “I don’t know what you’ve heard about managers, but I’m not like that, I signed you for a reason Jimin, I’d like to keep you in the group, not injured preferably, don’t ever feel like you have to hide an injury from me, whether it be physical or mental, ok?”  
He nodded.  
“Thanks, Manager”  
“We really need to address my name of Manager” I chuckled as the teacher ended the session, quickly leaving to go to his next class.  
“Manager, can we stay a little longer to practise on our own?” Hoseok asked “Jungkook and Taehyung want me to show them how to do certain moves”  
“I don’t see why not, you have the afternoon off, I’ll grab some food for you all, and make sure you all have a drink of water before you continue” I said, all of them nodding and grabbing their water bottles.  
Quickly nipping out, I went to the convenience store for the food. I didn’t want to over feed them if they were going to practise a little more and end up causing stitches in their sides, so I stuck with a few light snacks and pieces of fruit. Nice and healthy. With food in hand, I headed back round the corner when I got a text.  
Namjoon: Erm, Manager, did you lock the practise room door?  
What? No, I didn’t even possess the keys to any of the rooms in the studio. What the hell? I quickly replied.  
Me: No, why would I lock it? I’m coming back, hang tight!  
I rushed back to find that the door to their practise room was entirely locked. Thankfully, I could hear them and see them through the small glass window.  
“You didn’t lock it?” Namjoon was the one to greet me as I tried the door.  
“No, like I said in my text, why would I lock the door?” I asked, both of us just confused.  
“I told you that!” Hoseok said from behind.  
“Don’t worry, I’ll find the spare key and let you guys out, we can figure out what happened later” I chuckled a little “You guys have water and you’re locked in so no chance of bad behaviour anywhere” I said to try and lighten the mood to keep them calm.  
“Err, you think I would misbehave?” Namjoon asked.  
“Maybe not so much you, but Jin…I dunno” I laughed.  
“I heard that!” Jin shouted.  
“Hang tight, there should be a spare key somewhere, just keep practising until I find it” I smiled.  
“Well, if my manager can sneak in to a no agency underground rap competition, I think she can find some keys” he smirked and nodded, heading back to the rest of them.  
He was right, a set of keys should be dead easy to find, every building had a master set of keys, or least a spare set in case of emergencies. The reception usually held them, if not, they were kept in the basement with other spare stuff. Reception was my first port of call.  
“You locked them in?” the receptionist asked.  
“No, I didn’t and they didn’t, but they’re somehow locked in the practise room” I said again.  
“But how? You can’t lock doors in here without keys” they were just as confused as we were.  
“I get it’s confusing, but it’s happened so can I borrow the spare set?” I asked.  
“I mean, sure I’ll come and let them out, but let me just check who took the main set, it could be a security risk” they explained. That was fair, at least I knew they were taking their job seriously “A guy called Nik has them, he also left a phone number…”  
“I can call it while we get the guys out” I offered, bringing my phone out and dialling the number left.  
The receptionist followed me down to the practise room as the ringing tone kept repeating. Come on, pick up! The boys were happy to see the door being unlocked, just as the guy who took the keys answered. Finally.  
“Freedom!” Jin laughed “We won’t have to ration the water”  
“Oh, hello? Is this Nik? The guy who took Studio 00 keys?” I asked politely, smiling at Jin’s joke. The smile instantly faded when I heard the voice.  
“Hi Lyra, long time no speak” Kin said on the other end of the phone.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for late update, I got sick and had no time to write! I hope people are liking this!

I knew my face must have drained from all of its colour, as the boys quickly changed their tone when they saw me. They had stopped goofing around, enjoying the sudden freedom from the room. Me? I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t move. I just stared. As if only her voice did that to me.  
“Wow, not even a little hello?” she asked, prompting me to snap out of it.  
“How did you get here? Why?” I asked, moving away from the boys so they didn’t hear.  
“You think I’m going to tell you everything? Therefor ruin all the surprises? Come on, Lyra, I thought you were better than that” she said.  
“You do realise we will stop you, right?” I warned her “We did it once”  
“We? I do believe you were the one who stopped me, I have no issue with the Doctor, everything that happened was your doing”  
“No…it was your doing Kin, you’re the one who made those decisions, did those actions, whatever you’re doing now, I will stop you” I said.  
“You took everything from me! Now it’s your turn! Enjoy that boyband of yours while you can, today was just a tiny taste” she hanged up.  
As soon as she was off, I tried to call the number back. Out of service. Damn. I had to get this phone to the Doctor asap to try and trace. She was way across town though…and I had to get the boys back and with Jimin injured.  
“Are you alright, manager?” I heard Namjoon ask behind me.  
“Yeah, I’m fine” They came first, hopefully the TARDIS could track the number after some time “Let’s get you guys home”  
In the car, the guys were a lot more chatty than usual, discussing what had just happened, teasing each other. But they did start discussing the song that Yunki had been writing, suggesting they start coming up with lyrics. It felt nice to let their voices drown out my worry. However, it couldn’t fully get rid of it. Kin was targeting me. And now I knew she was targeting the guys. They had done nothing wrong, and me coming here had put them and their career in danger. Dammit. This was why I didn’t get involved in anything, or anybody. What was my future self thinking?  
I pulled up in front of their dorm and they all flooded out, Jin and Namjoon helping Jimin out. I didn’t move. The turmoil inside me was bubbling up again. I had finally felt at ease enough to try my best with these guys, to get them to debut. Now…now they were in genuine, real danger. Being locked in a dance studio was easy to fight, but Kin was scary and incredibly capable of much more than that. How was I meant to juggle all of it? Their debut, their welfare, the paperwork nonsense AND protect them from Kin? I rubbed my eyes, trying to relieve some of the stress.  
I jumped out of my skin when Yunki knocked on the van window.  
“Come on, Manager, we have a song to listen to and make lyrics for” he smiled kindly, opening the door for me.  
“Yeah, course, sorry” I smiled back so he wouldn’t ask if I was ok. He didn’t. He didn’t ask anything. We just walked into the dorm in silence. How was I meant to get my phone to the Doctor? She’d have to come here.  
Once in the living room, I messaged the Doctor about what had happened and she needed to try and trace the call. It only took a second to get a reply. She was coming to the dorm, but would hide out of sight so we didn’t have to involve the boys. Best way to do it. At least it calmed me down a bit.  
“I like it so far! I think the end needs a bit of editing” I joined the group, sitting on the floor in front of Jin. Yunki stopped the music.  
“It’s the bare bones, but that’s the main beat and tune, going to add in more to flesh it out” he explained “We need lyrics, and for our other songs I’d like some lyrics to work with”  
“So, you can work something around it?” Jimin asked.  
Yunki nodded.  
“Why don’t you each come up with something? Maybe, your own stories?” I suggested “let’s do a brain storm session” I smiled, spotting the Doctor waving at me from a bush. Subtle as ever. “I’ll be back in a minute, why don’t you think about what you wanted to be when you were little?” I jumped up and ran outside.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
“Should be able to find out at least where she was calling from” The Doctor said.  
“Even if it’s out of service?” I asked.  
“Yep, everything has a record, can’t delete that, well, I can, but she won’t be able to” she winked “how do you feel?”  
“Trying to keep normality? Keep them safe from someone who wants to hurt them and myself? Oh wonderful” I joked “Whoever made us crash I’m gonna slap them big time”  
“Can’t change the past” she said.  
“Only the future” I replied, sighing “I’ll just have to keep an extra eye on them all, no running off on their own or anything” I said.  
“Leave this with me, if I can find and stop her first, I will” she said, pocketing my phone.  
I smiled and headed back to the dorm. I quickly stopped though when I saw a figure moving fast from the corner of my eye. Kin? She came here already? I turned and ran straight towards the figure in the dark and slammed into them. Remembering what my old friends at Torchwood taught me, I pinned them down.  
“Kin, you have to…Jungkook?!” I froze, realising I had just attacked the youngest of the group “Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” I jumped off him.  
“You’re stronger than you look” he chuckled.  
“Are you ok?” I asked, helping him up.  
“Ego a bit hurt, but I’m physically ok”   
“What the hell are you doing out here?” I asked.  
“I wondered where you had gone, so I followed you” he explained. My heart dropped. Had he heard everything?  
“What did you hear?” I asked, serious.  
“Not much, something about us and danger…” he looked scared. Of me.  
“Oh no no hun, you’re fine, a friend of mine at the office has been keeping an ear out for me, she heard that the producer wants an update soon otherwise we’re in danger” I made up. I knew the producer would want an update soon, so not a full lie.  
“In danger of what?” he asked.  
I rubbed his arm to try and reassure him.  
“Darlin, nothing for you to worry about, just the producer being a bit meh” I smiled, putting my arm around him to take him inside “You just focus on practise and coming up with some lyrics, alright? Oh and eating all that food!”  
He finally properly smiled at me and nodded.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
When we rejoined the group, they were all discussing their previous dreams and hopes.  
“Manager, what did you want to be?” Jin asked, gesturing for me to sit with him again. My heart warmed. They wanted me with them. I had been forgiven.  
“An ice cream van” I laughed “Then an ice cream van driver, free ice cream whenever I wanted”  
“Oh I like that one!” Hoseok laughed with me “Ice cream is good!”  
“Taehyung? You’re next” Jin asked.  
“Everyone always thought I was good at games” he said.  
“So a pro-gamer?” Hoseok asked.  
“No, I wanted to be a farmer” he said.  
“Can we all be serious about this? We’re trying to come up with lyrics” Namjoon snapped.  
“I am” Taehyung said.  
“Ok ok, we want this song to be about hopes and dreams, from a young mind, right?” I moved the attention away.  
“What do teenagers dream of nowadays?” Hoseok asked.  
“Let’s think of random lines to make a stanza?” Jin suggested.  
“I have an idea, manager?” Taehyung said, I nodded for him to continue “What about Glass Mentality Boy”  
“I like it” I said.  
“Namjoon Hyung, what do you think?” Taehyung asked.  
“We’re not doing this as a joke, this is our career we’re trying to start, can you be serious for once in your life?” Namjoon snapped, standing and storming out.  
What the hell?


	9. Chapter 9

I stood outside Namjoon’s room for what felt like an eternity, just stood staring, hesitating. The rest of the boys had gone to their rooms, or stayed in the living room. I could tell Namjoon felt the pressure to write, not good, but, excellent lyrics. They had to debut with a bang if they were going to leave a lasting impression. Otherwise they wouldn’t stick in people’s minds. And yet, we were just messing around, not taking this seriously. It was only natural for him to snap. I felt for him and I wanted to help. After a deep breath, I finally knocked.  
“Yes?” I heard him say. I hesitated since he didn’t exactly sound happy, but I opened the door nonetheless.   
“Want to go for a walk?” I asked, poking my head around the door.  
“I have to get this draft done” he said simply.  
“A five minute walk isn’t going to kill you” I smiled encouragingly “I find a walk under the stars helps clear my mind”  
He sighed, closing his notebook and nodded. Maybe getting him out of the house would help him calm down. I mean, taking someone out of the situation and putting them in a neutral setting does help…sometimes. I just hoped it would this time.  
Not being able to stop myself smiling at him, I linked my arm through his and lead him outside. It was so quiet. So still. It was lovely to just walk in silence for a little while. We didn’t have a destination in mind so we just wandered. Arm in arm.  
“What happened back there?” I finally broke the silence as we turned another random corner.   
“I want this to be perfect” he admitted “everyone is so talented, so good at what they do and yet…I can’t even write some simple lyrics”  
“What? You can write amazing lyrics!” I said, forgetting when I was “You write so deep and truthfully I mean…” I stopped myself when I saw his confused face.  
“You’ve never read anything I’ve written…” he said, stopping walking.  
“Erm…I saw what you wrote in your diary” I made up, hoping that would cover it up. I had been listening to their music a lot recently and I had fallen for some of the lyrics. They were just so open and honest, some even hit home for myself. And they had written them themselves. My respect for them grew every day.  
“Ah, well, they’re incredibly rough, not any good really, I mean Jimin and Hoseok are so good at dancing already, Yunki has come up with some amazing music, I don’t know if I can do this” he admitted.  
I felt my heart clench. He was struggling mentally on whether he could do this or not. Jeez. I always thought boybands just let their producers do all the work, therefore they didn’t worry…didn’t have anxiety. I mean, why would they? They had it all. And here I was, with a young man who was just starting off on his journey who was full of anxiety and worry. I had clearly gotten these guys so wrong. Western and Eastern boy bands had very different ways of producing music.  
“I know it may seem weird to say, but, you’re worrying too much” I couldn’t help but laugh.  
“Why are you laughing?” he looked hurt, so I took his hand.  
“Oh no no, I’m not laughing at you” I laughed more “I’m laughing at myself, I’m constantly told I worry too much, believing the voice in my head saying I can’t do anything, that I’m terrible, why am I doing this? And to hear you say that, when I know fine well you can write amazing lyrics, it just made me laugh”  
He looked a little downhearted.  
“…but I picked each of you for a reason, you write some of your own raps yes?” I asked and he nodded “I thought they were pretty good, so I know you can do this no problem”  
“You think I can?” he asked.  
“I don’t think, I know you can, you need to stop worrying and just write, write what you feel…ok, look up at the sky, tell me what you feel right now” I asked, pointing up to the few stars we could see.  
“How dark it is…” I squeezed his hand then let go.  
“Keep going, think deeper” I suggested.  
“How little we are, the stars we can see is just a snippet of what is behind the darkness…the true potential of the night sky, just how much it can shine if we let it…” he said and I smiled. One day, I’d show him just how many stars are up there. One day.  
“See? Just let go and write” I said “but you kinda have to be open to other people’s opinions” I said, bringing it back to Taehyung.  
“I’ll apologise in the morning, that was wrong of me, I shouldn’t have snapped” he said.  
“Snapping is fine, sometimes you can’t handle your emotions, as long as you apologise for it” I smiled “come on, it’s getting cold and I don’t have a coat!”  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------  
The next morning I woke to the Doctor staring over me.  
“May I help you?” I asked, groggy as ever, my IPod headphones wrapped around me.  
“I traced the number” she said, grabbing my hand and pulling me up, the headphones coming with me. No sleep in for me that day. She pulled the monitor round for me to see. “Traced the call to here, that’s also where the phone was bought and set up, so clearly only did it for that one time”  
“So she could be anywhere, essentially?” I asked, now trying to get untangled.  
“Unfortunately yes” The Doctor said.  
“She won’t use a phone again to reach me, she won’t risk me finding her first” I suggested.  
“Very logical, but it does mean she’s going to physically talk to you next time…” she said “You do realise if she’s going after BTS, it might mean she doesn’t want them to debut which is your goal”  
“I had thought of that possibility, but I’m only doing this so the future stays put” I explained, finally becoming free from my IPod headphones.  
The Doctor looked like she was about to say something, but she kept her mouth shut and nodded.  
“This has to happen, what about my future self?” I asked “Couldn’t that create a paradox?”  
“I know, but I don’t think Kin knows this” she explained.  
She wouldn’t, no. She understood about how we travelled in space and time, but not about the implications it brought. Paradoxes could happen if we weren’t careful. Making this whole thing even more dangerous. Forget BTS not debutting, no, the whole future of the planet could be at stake now. If a paradox was created, only the Doctor knew what would happen. My phone just had to ring at that point.  
It was Jin.  
“Hey Jin, everything ok?” I asked.  
“We can’t find Taeyhung”   
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------  
I had never ran so fast. And that said a lot, I lived with the Doctor. My whole life was running. I burst through the door to see all the boys really worried.  
“What do you mean you can’t find him?” I asked, no time to beat about the bush.  
“He wasn’t in bed this morning” Jimin said “And we haven’t seen him since”  
“This is my fault, I shouldn’t have snapped last night and I heard him talking on the phone when we got back about going home…” Namjoon admitted.  
My whole chest sunk. No no no no. He couldn’t quit. Not this soon! Especially with Kin on the look-out.   
“Namjoon, with me, we’re going out to find him!” I grabbed his hand and dragged him out “The rest of you, stay put! Do NOT leave this house!” I warned severely, all of them nodding firmly to me.   
We ran all over the place to find him. I had prioritised Namjoon last night and not made sure Taehyung was ok too. Stupid! Now he could be in danger. Kin could have found him. Hurt him. Anything! We had to find him.  
“Manager!” I heard Namjoon shout from around the corner. I legged it over and we both found Taehyung just knelt down talking to a dandelion. He was safe. Thank God.  
“Taehyung!” I yelled in relief, throwing my arms around him.  
“Manager? Hyung?” he hugged me gently, but sounded incredibly bewildered.  
“We were so worried! We thought you had left and gone home!” I said, pulling out of the hug to scold him.  
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t planning on that, I just went on a walk to think about the lyrics…” he explained.  
“I shouldn’t have snapped last night, that was immature of me, I’m sorry” Namjoon said, hugging him gently.  
“I’m sorry too! Glass Mentality Boy…I was talking about myself…I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life before this so it felt right to suggest it” he said.  
“I’ll listen to you all more from now on, we’re a team” Namjoon said, punching his arm lightly, both of them smiling.  
“Come on, back to the house before practise ok?” I said, leading the way.  
I felt a huge relief in me. He was safe. No-one had attacked him. He hadn’t ran away. Just went to clear his head. The future was still safe for now.  
“Was Manager really that worried about me?” I heard Taehyung whisper behind me, I pretended not to notice.  
“We all were, but she rushed over as soon as Jin called to say you were missing, I think she was the most worried” Namjoon said.  
“So she does care about us” he smiled.  
“Of course she does, I think she’s going to be one awesome manager” Namjoon admitted, filling me with warmth. I’ll try my best. My absolute best.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have finished writing this fic, it has 17 chapters altogether. I stopped uploading because I wasn't getting feedback here so it was more for myself until I got a comment last night, thank you for that my lovely :) I'll upload the rest I may as well :)

It had been a few weeks since the encounter with Kin, and Taehyung disappearing. The boys had all been working so hard together, the songs coming along nicely, all to the point they felt ready to record them. Everyone was in agreement, and generally really excited to be going to the recording studio. Jungkook, however, was a little worried about being lead singer, but he seemed alright, if not practising a little more than usual, but he was ok. I thought.  
It hadn’t been easy for me to book the recording day though. My boss was breathing down my neck about the money I had spent on the studio, determined to get a debut date which I just didn’t have yet. They still needed a lot of time to bond, practise dancing to get it perfect, market themselves and so on. I kept defending them to the best of my abilities. I refused to give up on them, to give in and try to get them to debut too soon, which I kind of guessed that’s what my boss wanted. He wanted quick results, which just wouldn’t happen. For one thing, if they had no media presence then how would the audience know who they were when they did get up on that debut stage? It was definitely something to work on next.   
Fighting my boss wasn’t my only battle. The constant fear that Kin was going to pop up was ever growing. She hadn’t made herself known for a while, which was never a good sign, meant she was going to appear soon and there was no way I could be prepared. The only way I could distract myself was to keep focusing on the boys. I had been listening to their music through the TARDIS, watching their music videos, interviews, anything that could help me learn more about their progress. Their dance routines were now burned into my mind, I was pretty sure I could attempt to dance with them and know the routine without prompt. I was so tired. I kept going though, I had to.  
I woke up to find myself leaning against the TARDIS console yet again. It was the day of recording and I slept past my alarm. Fuck. I quickly stood and pulled on a fresh t-shirt, talking to the TARDIS as I did so.  
“Could have woken me up” I said, the TARDIS sighing at me “Don’t give me that, I’m sorry I slept on you, I’ll make sure I go to bed tonight, promise, tell the Doctor I’ve left already, see you tonight!” I rushed out as the TARDIS sighed at me as a gesture to say bye. I was getting as bad as the Doctor talking to the TARDIS, but oh well. Thankfully I was meeting the boys, and the producer, at the recording studio that day. Didn’t have to worry about grabbing the van and going to pick anyone up, I could just head straight there.  
When I managed to reach the studio, the boys were just arriving, so thank God I wasn’t late. They all seemed happy and well rested, except Jungkook who looked a bit peaky.   
“Jungkook, you ok?” I asked as we filed into the studio.  
He pulled a very fake grin at me and nodded, but refusing to talk to me. Something was wrong. I was about to drag him to one side, but the producer came up behind me.  
“This better go well, but I am looking forward to hearing these guys” he said, walking ahead. Jungkook had disappeared inside before I had the chance to grab him.  
Finally in the studio, we set everything up, Jungkook in the booth trying to look ready to go. My heart reached out to him. I wanted him to know everything was fine, he was going to be ok no matter what he was hiding from me.  
The producer spoke over the microphone into the booth.  
“Let’s get this started, sooner we start, sooner we finish, we may get a slight refund if we do” he said, me sighing internally.  
The music played and yet Jungkook wasn’t singing, much to the producer’s annoyance. He demanded he go again, but Jungkook just couldn’t sing. I took the microphone from the producer and spoke to him myself.  
“Jungkook? What’s wrong?” I asked gently.  
“I’ve lost my voice” he said, his voice incredibly raspy and quiet. Damn. I knew he had been practising way too much, but I didn’t think he’d push himself to lose his voice.  
“What do you mean?!” The producer flared up. I saw how upset Jungkook was and I had to resist running into the booth to hug him, comfort him. No. I had to be a manager right now. Best way to protect him was to take my boss outside.  
“Joon, Jin, look after Jungkook” I said firmly, both nodded as I took the producer out of the room.  
Once alone in the corridor, he exploded.  
“All that money! All of that time! Wasted! Why? Because he couldn’t look after himself! He can’t even do one simple recording? How is he going to be if he gets to debut? What’s next? Stage fright?” he almost yelled.  
“He’s 16” I stated.  
“He’s old enough to understand! Understand general health, how to look after yourself” he argued.  
“He’s 16” I stated again.  
“You say, but to me he’s mature enough to be in an idol group he can’t go losing his voice like this, he’s just wasted an entire recording day”  
“The day is not wasted, the rest of the boys can record their parts, I can book a short session later for Jungkook to do his bits” the producer almost cut me off but I kept talking “He is 16 years old, where I come from, that is still classed as a child, he’s still growing, developing, God bless him, he’s been practising so much, worrying that he’s the lead singer so much he thought over practise was a good idea, you’re dealing with real life human beings here, one of which is still a child in my eyes and if you want to have a go at a child, you’ll have to go through me first”  
The producer seemed gobsmacked at me talking back, but it needed to be said. As I had decided to myself earlier, I would protect these boys with every inch of my being. I was not going to let a big shot boss man bully me. He didn’t move, so I continued.  
“I’m taking Jungkook back to the dorm to rest, the others can record under your supervision, but Namjoon will be in charge of them instead of me, got it?” I said and the producer simply nodded.   
I opened the door to the studio, a couple of the boys jumping back, clearly been listening in. I walked straight past them to Jungkook. Taking his hand, I lead him out, telling Namjoon he was in charge for the rest of the recording session. He didn’t hesitate, the boys fell in line as me and Jungkook headed back to the dorm.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
“I’m sorry” Jungkook squeaked as I handed him a cup of hot water with honey and lemon.  
“Please, stop apologising, you shouldn’t have over practised but I’d rather you got yourself better” I explained, sitting on the sofa with him. “Seriously, you guys need to talk to me more often, I’m here to look after you, physically and mentally, if you’re worrying you need to tell me” I smiled, rubbing his arm reassuringly.  
He took a few sips of the drink and nodded.  
“I just didn’t want to mess up” he admitted.  
“None of you do, but guess what? You’re going to mess up, you’re still so young, if you go through life without messing up, how are you going to learn? God knows I’ve messed up a lot…” I said.  
“You see me as a child?” He asked, his eyes almost pleading as if he didn’t want me to see him as one. I couldn’t lie.  
“I do, you are mature for your age, but you’re still under 18, still so much to learn, to experience!” I smiled “I want you to live your life, not be afraid to make mistakes, but to learn from them too, ok?”  
“As long as you’re our manager, I’ll promise that” He smiled, causing a pang in my chest. I was only meant to be their manager until they debut. I wasn’t stupid. I had checked their history. Their first manager, no name, no mention, only lasted until their debut. My time would be up then. What was this feeling? Why did my chest feel so heavy? Did I actually want to stay with them? Was I starting to fall for them? They were very quickly becoming my best friends…  
My phone rang.  
“Hello producer” I said, remaining sat with Jungkook.  
“They are coming back to the dorm, they have finished” he said.  
“Thanks, I’ll book Jungkook’s recording in in a couple of days once his voice has rested” I said.  
“You need to be careful, you’re not the only person who can manage these boys” he explained, Jungkook hearing and looking worried.  
“What do you mean?” I asked.  
“I have another person who is just as trained as you who could take over, but the boys seem attached to you, respect you, so I’ve turned them down, but if you mess up big time…” I stood up, moving away from Jungkook so he couldn’t hear “if they don’t debut by the date I email you, or even they don’t want you anymore, you’re gone, got it?” he hung up.  
“Manager?” Jungkook asked.  
“Yeah?” I pocketed my phone, feeling it buzz as the email deadline came through.  
“I’ll always want you as our manager, we may have had a rocky start but, we’ve grown together, I don’t want anyone else” he said and I smiled.  
“As long as you want me, I’ll be here, don’t worry, I won’t let someone else manage you guys” I winked “Right, let’s get you some more tea, your voice is already sounding much better!”  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
“I call this meeting of Bangtan to order” Namjoon said, using his hand to slam onto the table to bring everyone’s attention to him “now that Jungkook has his voice back and his recording went off without incident this time, we need to discuss some things, manager?”  
“Thank you, newly appointed leader Namjoon” I tried to be as serious as I could, but couldn’t stop the small smirk forming “Welcome gentlemen, first thing on the agenda is…drum roll please!” The boys all used their fingers on the table to create a drum roll “…stop pushing yourselves! And that means you Jin!”  
“What?!” he said surprised.  
“I’ve heard from Hoseok you’ve been sneaking out late at night, I don’t know what you’re doing but stop pushing yourself!” I sighed, actually being serious now “I know you guys want to be the best, and I know you will be, but you won’t if you keep hurting yourselves like this, late nights, over practise, Jimin hurt himself, Jungkook got sick, it’s not healthy, if I see anyone not looking after themselves…no take out for a week!” They all gasped “That’s right! I’m that mean!”  
“Manager…that’s harsh” Hoseok said.  
“I don’t know if I can do this…” Taehyung added.  
I smiled at them.  
“Second on the agenda, names! It’s time to come up with some stage names, if you want them, you guys have two days to come up with something and at our next meeting, we will be reviewing and confirming them, these are entirely down to you, but the final say will be from all of us, ok?”  
“No problem!” Jin grinned widely.  
“Could probably come up with something” Yunki nodded too.  
“And the last thing for me to ask of yous, in order to get people aware of you as a group, we need to market you all, get your faces out there! Joon and Yunki came up with an idea of vlogs, just short little videos of your own creation to upload for people to see” I explained “So say Hoseok uploads a little bit of his dance practise, maybe Jin shows off…”  
“My handsomeness?” he suggested.  
“What handsomeness? Jin we need actual real things to show off here” I smirked, all of the boys laughing.  
“Manager, I am hurt” he laughed too.  
“You get the idea, however, I think we could keep one of you a secret until you debut, Taehyung, you were in demand from different companies, I’d like for you to record but not upload until you debut on stage, give it a bit of a WOW to the audience, is that ok?” I asked.  
This idea was risky. Taehyung was in demand from many other companies, I had seen all the business cards he had managed to gather. It had worried me a little that he may decide to leave us, I just had to make sure that didn’t happen, somehow. He had to be on board with this. Last thing I wanted was to upset anyone.  
“Erm, yeah I guess so” he said.  
The pang in my chest came back, but I knew I couldn’t please everyone.  
“Any other business you would like to discuss before I head home to sleep?” I asked.  
“Manager, what about the deadline the producer gave you?” Jungkook asked.  
Ah shit. Why?


	11. Chapter 11

“Deadline doesn’t exist Jungkook, the producer was just blowing hot air is all” was the lie I managed to squeeze out the other week to keep the worries of the group to a minimum. Last thing I wanted was a panic.  
They all seemed to take it just fine when I explained. Kook calmed down and the rest of them settled in to watch a film together as I left them be. They did ask me to stay but I refused, I had paperwork to do, or more like research back at the TARDIS. I could feel my body aching all over and I knew I needed to rest, but if I could just at least find where Kin was, it would be worth it. And then I could truly rest.  
In the TARDIS I sat staring at the scanning screen as the time machine scanned the entirety of Seoul for easily the fifth time. Negative. Again. Ugh. How was she hiding like this? The TARDIS could pick up any trace of alien tech or lifeforms for miles around. How was she so invisible?  
“Cloaking device no doubt” The Doctor said, coming up behind me.  
“It’s got to be, I’ve ran this scan five times now and nothing” I said, moving away from the console to face her.  
“You’re tired, you really should get some rest now, I can keep an eye” she suggested.  
“I really should, I need a day off, but with the producer only giving the boys a few months…” I said.  
“I thought you wanted out of here asap” The Doctor stated.  
“Originally, I did, but now” I said, not able to finish the sentence.  
“You’ve grown attached, haven’t you?” She smiled, all knowing, obviously.  
“It’s not just that, Kin’s a danger too” I sighed, but ending up yawning. Damn, I was tired.  
“When’s the deadline?” The Doctor asked and I showed her the date on my phone “It matches their history, they debut not long before that”  
“I certainly hope so” I said “But hey ho, it’s Jungkook’s graduation in a couple of days, maybe that will be a nice day off to enjoy”  
“They grow up so fast” The Doctor chuckled “Bed, now!”  
“Going, night Doctor”  
“Sleep well”  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
When I reached the dorm, I could hear the boys talking, laughing, goofing around from inside. They were all getting along so well now, almost like a well-oiled machine, it genuinely warmed my heart to hear them like this. Jin was laughing the loudest as ever, causing a smile to creep onto my face. Hoseok was clearly teasing Jungkook about something, a name? Ah they were voting on stage names. That was good. They were jumping ahead. Eager to keep going. My smile faded when I heard them talking about me.  
“She’s going to be here any minute, think she’ll be offended we started without her?” Hoseok asked.  
“I don’t think so, I think she’ll appreciate it really” Namjoon pitched in.  
“Although, she is a bit of a weird one, some of the things she says” Jin chuckled. The TARDIS translation circuits were doing their job excellently, but I knew there would be some words they wouldn’t understand, I just never worried about it, until now. Damn. Maybe I should have been more careful. Jin continued “I think it’s cute though”  
“Same, she’s a cool manager, she knows each of us back to front now” Yunki said “mark of a good manager”  
I kind of didn’t want to go in and interrupt them at this point. Obviously, it felt good to have my ego stroked a little, but deep down it made my decision about leaving them all the harder. I mean, decision was a strong word to use, in the fact I didn’t have a choice. Once they had debuted and had established themselves, that was it for me. I was gone. Back to travelling around the universe. They’d forget me in a year or two, like I had never existed. The way it had to be. And yet, not the way I wanted it. I loved these guys. Damnit. One of the rules with the Doctor had been broken, don’t get attached.  
I forced myself out of those thoughts, I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.  
Opening the door, I smiled as I came in, the boys grinning widely, encouraging me to join them in the living room.  
“I think we have some stage name ideas!” Hoseok jumped up, moving over so I could sit next to him.  
“Ah good, you got started, right let’s hear them” I said, plonking myself in between Hoseok and Yunki.  
“Well, me, Jungkook and Jimin kind of wanted to keep our own names” Jin said “So I’ll be Jin, Jungkook could be shortened to JK and Jimin stays the same too, is that ok?”  
“Dude, they’re your names, not mine, I think that works well” I smiled.  
“I like the name Hope, give our fans Hope kind of thing? Oh oh, and the story of Pandora’s box!” Hoseok said next.  
“…what about it?” I’d heard the stories from the Doctor, Pandora’s box wasn’t exactly a myth to her, she’d lived it in a previous incarnation.   
“Once it was opened and everything had been unleashed, all was left was hope, wasn’t it? Am I remembering the story right?” he asked.  
“I guess you’re right, hope was the only thing left…Hmm, it’s kind of missing something…” I suggested, smiling at the thought of his name.  
“I said that” Yunki nodded “Maybe put a letter or something before it? Jung? J?”  
“J-Hope! I like that!” Hoseok beamed like a child.  
This continued for the rest of the members, Rap Monster, Suga and V. Went a bit disarray for a little bit, but we managed to get back on track and officially have their stage names sorted. We ended the discussion and we started messing about for a few minutes before I kicked them to go do some vlog recording. I stayed in the living room to do the paperwork for their stage names.   
Thankfully, this part was reasonably easy. Assigning stage names to each member, only a matter of writing it down and making sure I filed it that day so they would be introduced with said names on their debut. Completely engulfed, I didn’t even notice Taehyung coming back to sit next to me.  
“Manager?” he asked.  
“Ah, sorry Taehyung, what’s up?” I asked, putting my pen down.  
“It’s about the vlogs” he said, hesitating a little.  
“Yeah?”  
“Do you not like me? Am I not good enough?” he asked.  
“Ah, is it time for our heart to heart?” I chuckled a little. Seemed to be a running theme with these guys.  
“What?”  
“Nothing, darlin’, you’re not the only one in the group worrying about something” I smiled “I didn’t decide to keep you a secret because you’re not good, and hardly because I don’t like you, Taehyung I love you to bits, the reason is I thought it would be a cool idea to make the fans think you’re a six member group, then, BAM, surprise seventh member who is hot, excellent at dancing, has a gorgeous deep singing voice, something to make them scream in surprise” I grinned as I explained “but you know, if you don’t want to do that that’s fine with me, we don’t have to keep you a secret, you can upload your vlogs if you really want to, your feelings come first”  
“Really?” he asked.  
“Yep, always come to me if you’re not feeling right, ok?”  
He nodded and I gave him a gentle hug, to which he instantly responded.  
“Thanks, manager” he said as we hugged “I’ll think about it, but I think I want to trust you and stay secret for now”  
“We’ll do whatever you want to do” I smiled, letting him go “now get recording” I playfully pushed him away.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
The day of Jungkook’s graduation went by so quick. The boys recorded stuff on their phones and I couldn’t help but join in. Hoseok pulled funny faces to my camera, Yunki and Namjoon chuckling at how shy Jungkook was being around his school friends. Way too adorable. We kept encouraging him to talk to them, but he refused, just looking as awkward as ever. And yet, I couldn’t have been prouder of him. I decided to record a lot more on my phone from then on. If the boys were doing vlogs, I could keep some memories myself privately. I’d filmed them at dance practise, singing practise, even filmed Jin cooking from time to time. They’d never go anywhere, only for me to watch when I was gone. Fond memories.  
The vlogs were coming along nicely too. There was a nice mix for me to watch at the office while I did the boring paperwork. Some of the boys just talked about their days, others did little demonstrations, all were cute and funny. I texted them in the chat, explaining that they could go ahead and upload their content that day.  
Manager: you are all way too adorable in your vlogs! Go and upload!  
RM: we’re not adorable…  
Suga: Manager is adorable when she falls asleep on our sofa  
Manager: That was one time last week!  
Suga: I still have drool on my hoodie  
RM: have you got much more paperwork manager?  
Manager: A tiny bit more I’m afraid  
At that point I sent a selfie of me looking sad surrounded by piles of paper.  
J-Hope: Jin! Manager sent a selfie!  
Jin: I’m saving that forever! Now my phone background  
Manager: Jin, delete it!  
Jin: NEVER!  
“You have a gig” I snapped my attention up to my boss who was hanging over me as he spoke.  
“We do?” I immediately stood up.  
“I’ll email the address, do not let me down” he simply said, plonking more papers onto my desk and then walking away. I opened my phone again.  
Manager: Guys….YOU HAVE A GIG!


	12. Chapter 12

There was no way in hell I could stop myself the next morning from bursting through the boys dorm front door. I was grinning like a child again. Their first gig! I was determined to make sure it ran smoothly and that I got some of it filmed on my phone. Happiness and pride filled my heart as the boys came to join me in the living room. It was so good to see the boys all ready and dressed in their performance clothes. One step ahead. Good lads.  
“Erm, Hyung? I think Manager is broken” Taehyung said to Jin.  
“Funny, come on guys, you’ve been invited to perform for a real life TV station producer!” I laughed, ushering them out of the dorm and into the van “have you all got everything?”  
“I put the stuff into the van so we should do” Yunki said.  
“Then let’s go! Good first impressions and all that!” I said, jumping into the driver’s seat.  
It was well before the deadline my boss had given me. I couldn’t remember the exact date these guys debuted but, right now, I didn’t care. This could be it. The day they show themselves off. All that hard work in the studios, the sweat, the tears, all of it, was going to pay off. I was super proud of them in that moment. I didn’t want to forget this feeling.  
When we pulled up I demanded a selfie with them all in the van. All of them happily obliged, except Yunki who just pulled a sour face. Of course. I showed them to the TV station lobby where their own excitement started to match mine.  
“Was that a celebrity?” Jin asked.  
“I swear I have seen them on TV!” Hoseok joined in.  
I grinned and texted the producer of the station to say we were in the lobby. The reply confused me though, telling us to go next door. What? But this was the building where they filmed. Maybe an outdoor shoot? They didn’t debut outside. All of us slightly confused by the text, we happily did as we were told and headed next door. That’s where we were met by the producer. I bowed low, as did the rest of the boys. He ushered us inside and to a tiny room that was dressed ready for a child’s birthday party. What?  
“Here are your uniforms” he handed me a big bag. What the fuck? This wasn’t what we were told. A gig. A birthday gig? I could feel my anger slowly rising. What had my boss not told me?  
“Excuse me?” I asked.  
“Aren’t you going to take it? My arm is getting heavy you know, like I said to your co-worker, if they perform well I may give them a slot” he said as it dangled in his hand.  
“Erm no, I’m not…” I started to say when Jin cut me off.  
“Uniforms right? Of course, we’ll change right away!” he took the bag and winked at me in reassurance “I’ve done stuff like this before, leave it to me”  
The producer nodded and left us to it.  
As the boys got changed, I stood alone in the party room. The balloons almost taunted me. My boss did say gig, but he never stated what kind of gig it was. But the guy said co-worker…I thought my boss spoke to him. I felt so deflated, so frustrated at the situation as the boys filed back in. I just couldn’t face them. I had to talk to my boss, now.   
I stormed out of the room before any of them could stop me.  
“Manager?” I heard Jimin call out to me but I ignored him.  
Outside the building, I called my boss, fuming. When he eventually picked up, that was the time he said it was a birthday party gig and nothing more. But he had promised if he was impressed he’d give them a slot on a TV show. That was the deal. His daughter’s birthday party for free, with the possibility of more. I could see the deal and how tempting it was, but the boys deserved so much better than that.   
“Look, if you’re that upset, talk to the girl who sealed the deal, she’s here now” he said and I heard him passing over the phone. I didn’t want to believe what my gut was telling me, but when I heard her voice again, anger seethed through me.  
“Oh is Lyra not happy with what I’ve given her?” Kin said on the other end.  
“You’re doing this to humiliate me” I stated.  
“Duh, humiliate you, those precious boys of yours, anything really to rip into you” she explained “What’s more humiliating than a manager not being able to deliver on promises? Not being able to get a simple slot on a TV show”  
“You’re not from this world, how can you possibly know?” I asked.  
“Pfft, bit of time to research until you crash landed, not difficult”  
“Wait, didn’t you cause the crash?”  
“Hardly, but the guy I got the tip from assured me that you and the Doctor would crash on a very specific date, he was so helpful” Kin said “but I’m afraid I have to go now, enjoy your birthday party and enjoy watching those boys slowly turn to hate you for it”   
It took every ounce of my being to stop from throwing my phone to the ground. She was trying to stop BTS from debuting, I just didn’t get why still. I mean, she may have been right in them slowly hating me for this. But why hurt innocent bystanders? Why not go for me? They would hate me for this. I’d have to face the music somehow.   
I pocketed my phone and headed back inside, swallowing my feelings.  
The birthday girl and her guests had arrived and the boys were in their horrendous red and white stripy top uniforms, serving everyone. Pathetic came to mind. I felt so bad. I couldn’t even watch, so I stayed in the corridor to try and calm down.  
It wasn’t long until they had set up their tiny stage and performance area, but I still stayed put in the corridor, refusing to make eye contact with any of them as they left the room to change back into performance gear. I jumped when Jin’s hand landed on my shoulder.  
“Manager?” he said.  
“Hi, you actually going to do this?” I asked.  
“Yeah, I mean with a possibility to get a slot on TV? We’ll ace it!” he said smiling.  
“What’s wrong?” Jimin asked.  
“You guys are so much better than this, you don’t deserve to be on a tiny little stage, I’ve let you down and basically making you perform for a little girls birthday, I mean…” Jin cut me off.  
“Is that all? Sometimes you have to start out small and work up, we got this ok? We’re willing to try if there’s a chance of a huge debut!” he smiled “Now it’s your turn to stop worrying” he tapped his finger on my nose, Jimin smiling behind him “give us good feedback!” Jin continued, leading Jimin back into the room.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Even after they smashed the tiny performance and were generally in decent spirits, I still couldn’t look at any of them in the eyes. The only thing I managed was to record their performance as best as I could to give them feedback, just like Jin had asked me to. I took them to a ramen place as a treat to say sorry, all the while I was constantly calling the producer to see if he was actually willing to give them a go. With 15 unanswered calls, I was beginning to lose hope. Feeling worse by the second.   
I slammed my phone down and pushed my fingers into my tear ducts to try and push the annoyance out of me. The smell of ramen couldn’t even distract me.  
“Hey, please don’t beat yourself up, it’s not your fault, it’s the producers, he should be ashamed of himself using us like that” Yunki said, rubbing my back gently.  
“Either way, it was experience, right?” Namjoon piped up.  
“Manager, we’ve already forgiven you, for one thing this food is so good!” Taehyung smiled at me, but I still couldn’t look at him.  
I stared at the table. Had I failed? Had I let Kin win? Should I have left the boys there and gone after her? Was it best I stayed? Should they have even performed? My heart felt heavy with all of these what if’s going round in my mind.  
“Say Ah Manager, fresh beef!” Hoseok said, trying to give me some meat he hand in his chop sticks from across the table. I turned away, feeling the familiar sting of tears threatening to form.  
I had failed as a manager. I couldn’t even find them a debut slot myself! Kin was the one who got a ‘gig’ and it was all just to laugh at me. I couldn’t do anything right. The boys had every right to hate me, judge me, not want me anymore. The tears started to spill out and I couldn’t stop them.  
“Err, Manager? Are you crying?” Jungkook asked, worried.  
“Excuse me” I said, dropping from my seat and walking away. Hard enough failing them, let alone them see me cry.  
As I walked to calm down, my phone rang. The TV Show producer’s name came up on my screen, so I eagerly answered it.  
“Hello? Yes?” I said.  
“Your guys were good, I’m willing to give you a slot on N Countdown, but I need to sort out a date tomorrow, can you wait until then?” he asked.  
“Of course, yes, you have my contact? My email?” I said.  
“I do, if I haven’t given you a date by 12pm, give me a call, thanks, I look forward to seeing what those boys can really do on a big stage!” he said, ending the call.  
I quickly wiped my tears. They’d done it. N Countdown. It matched their history, they just needed a date. It was happening. Kin’s plan backfired. I ran back to the boys, finally proud and happy to tell them the good news.


	13. Chapter 13

The boys were in complete disarray after I told them the news. Not one of them could sit still at the dorm for more than five seconds. It was almost like a mad house. I mean, I could understand their excitement, after all, I had been given a date for them to record for N Countdown and it was all confirmed at Big Hit. It was happening, really, genuinely happening. I’d have been worried if they weren’t excited.  
For the next couple of weeks, they put in even more effort to their practise sessions, their enthusiasm in their blogs had increased, but I made sure none of them let slip about the news. The blog itself had grown slightly, with a few comments here and there. Even when they did get negative comments, I helped the boys understand that this was going to happen and it was best not to respond. People weren’t going to like them. That was a fact. But there were people out there who did like them and that they should focus on that. I wanted to prepare them. I didn’t know much about what was in store for them after debut, but I understood they’d come across difficult times, just like anyone. I couldn’t be there to help and support them, they’d have to help themselves. Lean on their manager, whoever it would be at that point. Most of all, I couldn’t protect them forever. The reality of Kin upping her game came to mind. Me being here was putting them in danger, even though I didn’t want to leave, I had to. They couldn’t know about my life. That was the only way I could protect them.  
I suddenly felt a weight on my head, my eyes going dark.  
“YES! Ten points to Jin!” I heard Hoseok shout. They’d managed to throw a hat onto my head after many attempts before.  
“How is my head ten points but Joons is 15?” I asked, taking the hat off my head.  
“He’s moving around more and not daydreaming like you are, manager” Jin explained, laughing heartily.  
“I’m not daydreaming” I objected.  
“Oh, what’s this then?” Jin copied my dream like face from across the living room “I’d say that’s daydreaming, fantasising about my handsome face?”  
“Right, come here!” I growled, hurling myself up from the desk and legging it across the living room to try and catch him. Jin screamed, running away.  
“Are you really that scared of Manager?” Yunki said, watching us run around the room like lunatics.  
“’Cause I know where he’s ticklish” I said, trying to jump on him.  
We all froze when we heard a knock at the door. I quickly counted heads and we were all here, present, so who was knocking? Yunki got up and opened the door to reveal the Doctor standing on the other side, grinning in greeting.  
“Hi!” she smiled “You must be Yunki”  
“Erm, yes, who are you?” he asked.  
“Don’t worry, she’s a friend of mine” I quickly explained, leaping over to the door.  
“Only a friend? I thought we were best friends” she pouted as I shut the door behind her, gesturing Yunki to move away.  
“What you doing here? What’s wrong?” I asked, whispering so the guys wouldn’t hear.  
“It’s the TARDIS, she can move now, we can leave”  
“Leave?” The boys clearly heard us talking.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
After a discussion with the Doctor, she had explained whatever Kin was using to keep the TARDIS grounded, she had turned off. Could be using the power elsewhere, to something else, or just simply turned it off. To tempt me to leave? We had talked about that possibility. But, at the end of the day, if I wanted to up and leave, I could. I didn’t have to worry about the boys, Kin, nothing. Just go. Go back to travelling the universe. No care in the world. But if I left, Kin would still be a danger, she wouldn’t leave, would she? I mean, she could follow me, leave the Bangtan boys alone. That would mean they were safe. Ugh. My mind buzzed with what if’s and possibilities.  
I sat back in the chair outside the dorm in the back garden. The Doctor had gone back inside to leave me alone to think. Whatever my decision was, she’d support me, stay with me or go with me. But it was my choice. Didn’t exactly make it easy though.   
I looked round to see the Doctor getting on with Jin and Joon, both of them fascinated by her. Couldn’t stop myself from smiling at them. Yunki and Jimin spotted me staring, nodded to each other and headed out to join me.  
They didn’t say anything as they sat either side of me. It was Yunki who asked the question all of them were thinking.  
“Are you leaving us?”  
“I don’t know” I said honestly.  
“But, we’re debuting day after tomorrow, we need you” Jimin said, a little emotional.  
“I know that, but there’s a lot about me you don’t know, a lot going on behind the scenes you guys have no idea about, it’s a decision I can’t make lightly” I explained.  
“Then, talk to us, maybe we can help” Yunki suggested.  
“I want to stay, I do, but the possibility of…an issue either staying or following me away from you guys…” I tried to explained. Obviously, they looked confused “If I stay, something might happen, if I leave then that something may follow, meaning nothing will happen to you”  
“But that issue may stay if you leave?” Jimin asked, kind of understanding. I nodded. “Then, surely, if you have to face an issue you’d rather know you can face it head on, than running away?”  
It clicked. He was right. There was a chance Kin wouldn’t follow and still go after them. But if I stayed, I could at least try and stop her here. I had to stay, until she had been stopped. I smiled at them, finally feeling certain about all of this.  
“You’re right, I can’t run from this, I’ll stay until it’s sorted” Jimin smiled at my answer, throwing his arms around me, Yunki following his actions. I hugged them tightly in return. For now, I’d be staying. Resisting the temptation that Kin had most likely given me.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Debut day had arrived. The Doctor had assured me she would stay with me to help stop Kin, and the boys were extremely happy I was not leaving them. The dressing room was a buzz of activity and excitement that was extremely contagious. Photos were taken, chants were made, hugs were had, then I kicked them out to go get their makeup done.  
Once I’d checked the clipboard of the running times, I knew they didn’t have long until they had to be on stage to record. So I grabbed my phone and made my way out to meet them backstage.  
My smile quickly vanished when I saw Hoseok with his makeup on. What. The. Hell? Why did he have so much eyeliner on? He looked like a panda!  
“Hoseok…” Was all I managed to say when he ran up to me.  
“Hi, manager! Like my look? The makeup lady says it’s the in thing right now!” he projected with pride, causing the others to gather and also want the same. Oh no.  
I grabbed someone elses clipboard as they passed me, quickly looking over the costume ideas for them. Jeez. This was so…weird. No. This wasn’t right. Thick, black, eyeliner, Joon having weird hair…ugh. It screamed awful. Thing was, it was what the producer wanted, and clearly the boys were on board. I had to speak to the stage manager. If we could at least alter it slightly…  
“We can’t change the costumes now” she explained.  
“Oh come on, they’re so…” I pulled a face, not knowing the right word.  
“Changing so close to filming, it’s impossible” she said. I was about to sigh in defeat and let them go on as they were when someone interrupted.  
“What’s going on here?” I heard the producers voice and turned to see him accompanied by none other than Kin. I kept my mouth shut.  
“She wishes for us to change the costume design” the stage manager explained. I couldn’t get a word in edgeways to just drop it.  
“Bit short notice, very unprofessional” Kin said, sucking up to the producer.  
“We can’t change it, maybe you were right, Kin, I went against your warning of how demanding she can be…this isn’t going to work” the producer explained.  
“What?!” I said.  
“I’m cutting your group for Kin’s group, much more prepared to go with the flow, I’m sorry” he said.  
“Wait a Goddamn minute, you assured me that Bangtan would have a slot if they performed well at your daughter’s birthday, for free I may add, they did, you gave us a slot, you can’t take that away, for one thing you wouldn’t let me say I didn’t mind using these costume ideas, if that’s the plan then fine, but I’m not happy about it” I protested strongly.  
“Still, you’re cancelled” he said, ignoring me. My anger bubbled more.  
“We’re being cancelled?” I heard Joon behind me.  
The producer shrugged his shoulders, bowed and left with the stage manager. Leaving Kin, me and Joon alone. Kin smirked, and looked to Joon.  
“Your manager’s not exactly professional, is she? Not being able to get you a good gig, now getting your slot cancelled? God, you guys have been hit with some bad luck” Kin said, trying to act sympathetic. She pulled out a fake business card, handing it to Joon. “If you want a proper manager, call me” she said, leaving us.  
“Manager?” he didn’t look angry, just…broken at his dreams being crushed.


	14. Chapter 14

Five stages of grief. All the boys had experienced them for nearly two weeks. I had sat them all down and explained what had happened. They deserved that much. The fact I did want to change costumes, but if they had to do as they were told then so be it, but they didn’t give me a chance to say that. Naturally, they forgave me, I didn’t, but damn they were so angry at the producer. They bargained, they begged, but soon they all came to acceptance. At least, most of them did.  
Jimin seemed to be the one who struggled the most. He hadn’t been eating and Hoseok had been trying his hardest to get him to. I’d heard many a fight coming from the living room of Jimin refusing to eat again, but exercising more. He’d managed to get it into his head that he needed to be fitter, slimmer. It was something I was not prepared for. I wasn’t a therapist. I tried my damn hardest to get him to eat, even told exactly how many calories were in each meal I made for him, but nothing. I only ever came back to the plate still being full. I didn’t know what to do. I was lost. And Jimin was getting sick. Everything was collapsing.  
It came to the point where the Doctor had to help. She sat down with him and explained in her very ‘doctor’ way, that if he wanted to diet, then that was fine, but what he was doing wasn’t dieting, it was starving himself. When we eventually got him eating, I had taken on the blame. It was my fault he had stopped eating. If I had kept my big mouth shut at the debut, let them wear whatever they were given, Jimin wouldn’t have blamed himself and started believing in a lie he told himself.  
It took a little while for Jimin to get better and I couldn’t apologise anymore to him. That’s when I started to cut myself out. I stayed more days at the office, longer hours, just to avoid spending time with them. My boss had tightened the deadline, saying I was a joke at the possible debut and laughed in my face. Kin had made another offer of being their manager which he declined, thankfully. Instead, he was threatening getting rid of the boys and hiring new trainees, to which I objected. That’s when he set the final deadline of only one month. One month. One month to find a TV Station to give these guys a debut slot. To say I felt the pressure was an understatement.   
Days on end I travelled by myself to TV Studios, begging them to give the boys a slot. I even showed them the footage I had taken of their dancing, their songs, but no-one was agreeing. Every single door I tried to open firmly closed behind me. I even tried apologising to N Countdown’s producer, but he refused to even see me. Lost cause. How the hell did Kin do it? Maybe they would be better off with…no I couldn’t think like that. She was up to something.   
My phone was full of unanswered texts, phone calls and voicemails from the boys. I didn’t open the texts because I knew they would see I had read them and not replied. I couldn’t face them. They had said they had forgiven me, but I certainly hadn’t. I listened to the voicemails though. The first couple were chirpy, all of them trying to get a word in and saying they missed me, could I bring chicken and so on. But as the days went on, the voicemails got more urgent and worried, about me. They didn’t have to worry about me. I was fine. I had to be. I had to get them another slot.  
Putting my phone away, I walked down another street to try another TV station. My head began to spin but I powered on, pushing through this weird feeling. As I walked I could feel my stomach growling and I internally promised to get food after this meeting. Maybe I was a bit hungry and a sandwich would help. Later. However, the world around me started to warp, my head pounded and I almost lost my balance. I steadied myself against the nearest wall, taking a few deep breathes before I tried to continue walking. My body had other ideas as the world fully turned upside down and I blacked out.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
“Do you think she’s left us?” Jin asked as he and Joon walked through a park, the rest of the boys hanging out on a children’s climbing frame.  
“No, she wouldn’t leave us” he said firmly.  
“But she’s not even opening our messages…this is it, isn’t it?” Jin asked “where we don’t get a debut, end of Bangtan”  
“I don’t think so, because even if we lose this contract, I’m still going to keep fighting, I’m still going to rap, produce music, I’m happy to get part-time jobs to keep us going if I have to” he said “but you have to be on board too…for them” Joon gestured to the rest of them. Jin looked at the rest of his group, his new family, even if they were missing one member. He nodded.  
“I’m on board, but we need our manager, she has to stay” he said just as his phone rang, their managers name, Lyra, popping up on the screen “Finally!” he grinned and answered “Manager! We’ve been so worried, where are you?”  
“Oh hello, I’m sorry this isn’t the owner of the phone, I’m contacting you because you are down as an emergency contact” the woman on the line said, the colour draining from Jin’s face “the owner of this phone collapsed earlier today…”  
“Which hospital?”  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Bright. Too Bright. No. Want to sleep. Sleep was safe. The real world was not.   
“Manager?” I heard a voice call to me, pulling me out of my unconscious state. I didn’t want to wake up. I wanted to keep sleeping.  
“Come on, Manager, please” I heard the voice again and I desperately tried to ignore it.  
“Lyra, I know you can hear them, wake up, come on” the Doctor’s voice. She was annoyed. Oh no. Shit. What had I done?  
I carefully opened my eyes at the Doctor’s annoyed voice, scared I was in trouble. I groaned as the lights hit me hard.  
“Thank God, you’re ok!” the voice from before spoke again. It was Jin who was sat next to the Doctor.   
“Jin?” I asked, sitting up slightly, seeing the rest of the group “What are you all doing here?”  
“We rushed over when the hospital called” Yunki explained.  
“Hospital?” I realised where I was and quickly realising the Doctor was annoyed at me. I risked a glance at her…yep, she was mad.  
“I told you to be careful” she simple said, the boys suddenly looking on edge too.  
“I was…” I started.  
“No, you were being careful of other things, not about yourself, how many times have I got to tell you, your health always comes first? Rest, eat and then go out running around like a headless chicken to as many TV stations as you want, but always, always eat and rest!” she lectured me “you tell these boys every day to look after themselves and yet you can’t even look after yourself! I don’t know what else to do Lyra, I really don’t, but I do know you owe these guys an apology, when you’re better tomorrow I’ll see you back at the TAR…at home” she corrected herself and left me alone with the boys.  
“You don’t owe us an apology” Jin said.  
“No, I do, I preach to you all and don’t listen to my own lessons, I’m sorry, I over did it…” I said.  
“Just a bit” Joon chuckled “We were just worried you’d left”  
“No, no, I’d been…” I started but Namjoon raised his hand to stop me.  
“The Doctor told us” Joon said.  
“We couldn’t believe how much you had been doing, how many places you had been to try and get us a slot, but we were more worried when the hospital rang to say you had exhaustion” Jin explained “we don’t know what we’d do without you, Manager, if we don’t have you we can’t debut”  
“You guys!” I started to get all emotional, to which Jin quickly hugged me, the rest following.  
“I’ll come and pick you up tomorrow, but I think Jin wants to play some board games” Yunki chuckled as we broke up the hug.  
“We’ll see you tomorrow, manager, just next time? Take us with you to the TV stations, ok?” Joon asked before they all left me and Jin to play the board games he had brought. I nodded in agreement. We were a team. A unit. I guessed it would have made a bigger impact if I took the group with me to try and get a slot. A live snippet to show them what they would be getting.  
I grinned as Jin pulled out his board game from his bag.


	15. Chapter 15

“Any luck?” Taehyung asked as I held the video call up for him to see myself and Hoseok leaving the TV station. We both shook our heads.  
“Nah, clearly we’re too good for them” Hoseok said “Jimin and I gave them an amazing demonstration but, their loss”  
I chuckled as Jimin squeezed in at the back and agreed.  
“We’re heading back to the dorm now, did you guys need any groceries?” I asked.  
Taehyung shook his head, the others rushing around him in the background.  
“What the heck are you guys doing?” I asked.  
“Nothing, just…tidying, take your time getting back manager, see you soon” he quickly ended the video call, leaving me confused, but I shrugged and headed back to the van with Hoseok and Jimin in tow.  
We had two weeks left. They had no idea, but the deadline my boss had given them had reached the two week mark. Thing was, I didn’t feel any pressure anymore. Something had been lifted from my shoulders now, knowing the boys had my back no matter what happened, it helped. Even if we didn’t get a debut date, I knew I was going to stay here on Earth until they did. These guys were like my best friends now. I couldn’t imagine my life without them.   
Back in the van, I sighed a little in relief. Jimin and Hoseok leaned forward to look at me from where they were sat behind me.  
“You ok, Manager?” Jimin asked.  
“I swear I have to do something about you guys calling me manager all the time, I have a name, use it, no need to be formal” I chuckled.  
“We can’t do that, you’re our boss” Hoseok grinned “We heading straight back?”  
“Was there somewhere else you wanted to try?” I asked, turning in my seat to face them a bit better.  
The boys glanced at each other then back to me.  
“Well, I kind of wanted some ice cream before we went back…” Jimin admitted.  
“I could go for ice cream, there’s a stand round the corner, I could grab a couple?” I asked and they nodded enthusiastically “Alright, what flavours?”  
“Anything you pick will be good, manager” Hoseok grinned widely again to me.  
They were up to something, and normally I’d call them out on it, however, something in my gut was telling me to leave it. I rolled my eyes at them and hopped out of the van again. I told them to stay put as I quickly jogged round the corner to grab a couple of ice creams. When I came back, they were talking animatedly about something on their phone. I felt a smile creep onto my face as I watched them. I couldn’t tell if they were video calling someone or watching a funny video, or what but they looked so genuinely happy and entertained. It brought me joy for a few seconds. Knocking on the van door, they snapped out of their laughter and opened the door, putting their phone away.  
“Oh they look so good, thank you manager!” Hoseok said, taking the chocolate one.  
“Thank you, I think we can go home now” Jimin said, Hoseok nudging his arm gently as he took his ice cream.  
“Can we now?” I chuckled, pulling myself into the van again. I took my phone out when it buzzed. A notification had come through on the blog. Spam. Just generally saying I hadn’t uploaded in a while. The boys had their own account, but I had made a side account in case I wanted to show some behind the scenes things. It was weeks ago since I had posted a video, so I thought I may as well upload another now. I scrolled through my videos, all personal stuff, nothing of potential fan interest, until I came across the birthday party video. The boys had their feedback for it, so…nah. Not worth it. But was it? I mean, what harm was it in posting it? Meh. I hit upload and changed the title to ‘Birthday Party Bangtan’ and left it at that.  
As soon as I had parked outside the dorm, Hoseok and Jimin scrambled out of the van as fast as they possibly could. Yep. Definitely hiding something. I shook head at them as I climbed out of the van myself, chuckling as they rushed inside without me.   
I happily followed them in at my own pace, obviously making sure the van was locked before I did so since the boys didn’t. Once through the front door, I took off my shoes and called out to them all.  
“If you haven’t guessed at Hoseok and Jimin, we’re back!” I smiled to myself, pulling my slippers on.   
“We’re in the kitchen!” I heard one of them shout.  
“Alright” I headed into the kitchen “No luck at that TV station sadly, but I do have an…what the hell?” I stopped in my tracks as I saw all of them bunched together holding a cake out to me.  
“Surprise Manager!” They said in unison.  
“With our blogs growing, us gaining fans here and there, we realised the one fan who has been with us for the longest was you and…well…we wanted to thank you for that, for never giving up on us” Namjoon explained.  
“You were kind to me when I was injured and unwell” Jimin said.  
“You’re silly with us and willing to have a laugh” Jin piped up.  
“You reassure us when we’re down” Taehyung and Jungkook said together.  
“You accept each of us as who we are” Yunki said, genuinely smiling.  
“You feed us, you house us and you bring us warmth every day” Hoseok said.  
“You’re what a good manager should be, hard working, dedicated and determined, but also, you love us and care for us, you’re our biggest and truest fan, Manager” Namjoon said finally “thank you, we hope there’s many years to come with you! No challenge we face can stop us”  
I felt the tears threatening to form in my eyes as they each spoke to me with their sincere thanks. I felt my phone buzz a couple of times, but I ignored it. Being encouraged to, I blew the candles out on the cake and Hoseok jumped up with a knife.  
“Let’s cut it!” he shouted.  
“No, no, let me cut it” Joon said, confiscating the knife and carefully cutting it up.  
The whole afternoon flew by. We finished the cake within minutes and we ended up playing video games together. Just relaxing. Being ourselves. We laughed at Jins jokes, Hoseok’s goofiness and I happily told them a couple of stories about my travels, passing them off as fairytales. I was sat on the sofa, legs across Yunki as he raced Joon on Mario Kart for the3rd time. Joon was determined to beat him this time. With him coming in 8th place on the final lap, it didn’t look promising.  
“Oh pity sake!” Joon shouted as Yunki beat him yet again. I felt my phone buzz yet again. Ugh. It hadn’t stopped all afternoon.  
I pulled it out and my jaw hit the floor when I saw all the notifications.  
“What the hell?” I said to myself, causing Yunki to turn his attention to me.  
“What’s wrong?” he asked and I passed him my phone “Whoa…”  
“What? What?” the rest of them asked, gathering around my phone.  
It had exploded! The video of them at the kids birthday party had literally gone viral. The buzzing was people liking, commenting, sharing, everything they could do with a video. Everyone was talking about it. We had all sat there staring at the amount of love and attention they were getting for easily an entire minute before someone broke the silence.  
“When did you upload this, manager?” Joon asked.  
“A few hours ago now” I said, still in awe.  
“Damn, that went viral quick” Yunki said, still holding my phone. He jumped when a phone call came through. He almost chucked it at me, which I somehow managed to catch before answering.  
“Hello?” I asked, staying put on the sofa so the boys could hear.  
“I think I owe you an apology” the TV Station producer said on the other end “N Countdown, next week, people are demanding to see your group on TV, so what do you say?”  
I looked to the boys. It was their decision at the end of the day. Almost as if they had planned it, they grinned in time and nodded in agreement to it.  
“I think we could do that, but on one condition…we sign an agreement” I smiled, winking at my boys.


	16. Chapter 16

Wake up the boys. Done. Feed the boys. Check. Make sure they’re dressed and ready. Yep. Driven them to studio and safely into dressing room. Also done. Water bottles at the ready. Make up…done to a certain degree. Nerves rising. Anxiety rising. Worry rising…  
“Manager, we’re going to be fine” Jin said, placing a hand on my shoulder.  
He was right. They had a good few hours until they actually filmed. They were given this morning to practise the running order, then would actually film tonight. Any issues, we had plenty time to sort it all out.  
“You’re all gonna be awesome!” I smiled at them as they got ready for their rehearsal “I’ll go and grab you all some lunch while you practise, I’m sure Joon can hold down the fort whilst I do that” They didn’t have to know that The Doctor had found where Kin was hiding, that I was heading over there now to try and stop her before tonight. They could be kept in the dark, in the safety of the unknown.  
Joon nodded, accepting the responsibility as I left the TV Studio. The Doctor met me outside and we quickly ran towards the signal the TARDIS had found.   
Months. It had literally taken months since we crash landed to find her. The idea of being stuck on Earth for so long used to make me cringe, make me want to run, but now, she had changed my point of view on life in a roundabout way. Maybe I had never felt like I had belonged anywhere due to the fact I didn’t have anyone who made me feel welcome. My family were never close and drifted apart. My school friends were the same. I’d gotten used to the fact people just drifted after a certain amount of time. My life with the Doctor had been perfect, hopping around, never giving it time to settle roots down. This time, Kin forcing us to stay here, it gave me time to think, to reflect. I could find a place I felt like I belonged, if I gave it a chance.  
As we got closer, we slowed down, stopping briefly to make a plan.  
“You do realise I have to get the Galactic Federation involved once we have her? Someone trying to maliciously cause a paradox…” the Doctor explained as we prepared.  
“I know, she needs to pay for what she, well, almost did, I get that” I said, having full closure of her now. I harboured no ill feelings towards her anymore. The pain she had caused me those years ago, it was finally gone. The love I had felt for her, also gone. I was free.  
We rounded the corner and let ourselves into her building, quickly finding her flat door. The Doctor didn’t hesitate and immediately opened the door with the sonic. Empty. The place was so empty. There was a mattress and that was it, well, except for the giant ass machine that was in the middle of the living room. Kin was nowhere to be seen.  
The Doctor got to work on scanning the machine as I took a look around. It shocked me how little she possessed. Not even a diary to keep records of her plan. No TV. No papers. She had a one track mind. To get me. That’s when I heard the beeping.  
“Uh oh…” The Doctor said.  
“What uh oh?” I asked, turning to face her. I didn’t have time to react as she tackled me to the ground, covering me as the machine set off an intense pulse, knocking us both out.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
“Where is she?” Jin asked, checking his phone for the millionth time in case she had messaged.  
“Jin, calm down, there could have been a big queue at the noodle place” Joon said.   
Their manager had been gone well past the rehearsal and it was reaching mid-afternoon now. She had been gone for ages. Something in Namjoon’s gut was saying something was wrong, but he pushed it down in order to keep his members calm. They’d still go on and perform, even if she missed it. They could watch together at the dorm on the TV. But it was all their hardwork, he wanted her there.  
He stuck his head out of the dressing room to only be greeted by the girl who gave him a business card at their first attempt at a debut. What did she want? He was hesitant when she spoke.  
“Manager left again?” she said “I think we need to talk about her, she’s been lying to you” Joon stood staring at her for a few seconds “why don’t we go in your dressing room, I have something you guys all need to hear”  
Joon hesitated, but let the girl in, closing the door behind them.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
“Lyra, Lyra! Lyra come on!” I heard the Doctors voice pulling me out of my unconsciousness. Ow ow my head! I felt her shaking me now.  
“Ow…” I said, slowly waking up with now a banging headache.  
“Come on, that machine was set to go off to knock us out, it’s 3pm! You only have a couple of hours before they film Bangtans debut!” The Doctor explained and I shot up.  
“Shit!” I forced myself up and ran back to the studio as fast as I possibly could.  
Completely out of breath, I made it back in record time, the staff reassuring me I still had a while to go until they went live. Thank God. I knew I hadn’t gotten food, but their safety was more important to me. I jogged to their dressing room and barged through to find all of the members still alive and well, sitting together.  
“Thank God, you’re all ok” I sighed heavily.  
Something was wrong. They all turned to me, all varying degrees of upset. Jungkook looked unsure. Jimin looked like he wanted to cry. Namjoon just looked mad.  
“Guys?” I asked.  
“So, all of this was a joke?” Joon asked.  
“What?” I asked completely confused.  
“This, Lyra, you being our manager, you did all of this just to set us up to fail?” he used my real name, no manager, just Lyra. Damn. What had happened?  
“We have the phone conversations you were having with the other idol company you work for, you said some horrible things about us” Jin said, almost as mad as Joon.  
“What? Hang on, what phone conversations? What other idol company?” I looked at each of them, but no-one giving me an answer. I heard a click and then what sounded like my voice coming from a tape recorder.  
“Jungkook is the most wasteful of them all, if you think Jimin was bad injuring himself, ha should see Jungkook, what a wimp losing his voice!” another click switching it off. Kin coming out from behind Joon, a huge smug look on her face.  
“Jigs up” she said simply.  
“How could you say these things about us?” Hoseok spoke up “We trusted you”  
“That’s not me…” But I knew fighting it wouldn’t help. By the looks of things, Kin had convinced pretty much all of them with her fake recording of me. I couldn’t convince them by just talking.  
“I think its best you leave” Yunki said. Their words were like knives in my chest. I didn’t want to leave. Kin was the danger, I couldn’t leave them in her hands…  
“You guys said you wanted me to be your manager for…” I started, fighting back the tears.  
“We don’t want you as our manager anymore” Jungkook spoke up, standing right in front of me, blocking me from Kin’s view. He almost towered over me “we don’t want you here” he slowly backed me away from the group, but his face didn’t look angry, he looked pleading. It registered. He didn’t believe her. He didn’t believe in Kins lies. “Get out, get out!” he shouted, pushing me out of the door and round the corner. He didn’t let go though, he kept a hold of my hoodie. He changed to a whisper “Help”  
“Go along with it, I’ll be back, I promise” I squeezed his arm and ran off.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Jungkook didn’t know what to do. The recording sounded so real, and yet, he didn’t believe it. His manager wouldn’t say those things about them. There was something about this girl he couldn’t put his finger on and when Lyra had come and said it wasn’t her, the way she reacted. he trusted her. Problem was, Joon had agreed to this new girl to being their manager and he knew they were in some kind of danger. He also had no idea how to help Lyra other than do as she had just told him. To play along.  
“Finally, now she’s gone” Kin said, moving away from Joon.  
“I can’t believe she said those things…” Jimin said, still clearly upset.  
“You’ll get over it” Kin dismissed him, Jungkook rushing over to Jimin to hug him. His gut was right. The care she had in her voice previously was gone. No emotion.  
“Should we come out to the stage in a few minutes so we’re ready to go on?” Jin asked, trying to lighten the mood.  
“Why would you do that?” Kin turned, asking them.  
“Because we go live in just over an hour? It’s nice to get psyched up” Joon explained and Kin laughed. A laugh that sent shivers down Jungkook’s spine.  
“You won’t be going live” she said, heading out the door.  
“What?” Yunki asked this time.  
“You guys really shouldn’t just trust anyone, you won’t be going live because I’m taking you off the list now” she explained.  
“We’ll just call our manager, she’ll stop you” Jungkook finally spoke up to her.  
“I don’t think so” she pressed a button on the recorder device in her hand and then pulled out a key “blocked your phone signals and you won’t be going anywhere, nice meeting you BTS, shame about your manager, oh well!” she said, closing the door and locking it behind her. Hoseok leapt at the door to try and stop her, but it was way too late.  
They were stuck.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
“Ok, no doubt Kin will have spies everywhere by now, so you’re sure you can get the Galactic Feds here in like…30 minutes?” I asked the Doctor.  
“They’re already on their way, they just asked to have her in a place where no humans can see” she explained.  
“Right, ok, I’ll get her to the broadcasting room B, I heard it’s under renovations right now so isn’t being used” I said.  
“Room B, got it” The Doctor said “Lyra, those boys have to get on that stage”  
“I know, I have an idea, see you in half an hour” I smiled, slipping back into the building.  
I pulled up my hood and snuck around as best as I could. Avoiding eye contact with those around me. I didn’t know who Kin was controlling at that point, so not talking to anyone was best. Passing the stage manager, I listened in to their conversation with Kin. Luck!  
“The Bangtan boys won’t be performing, they left, but keep their names on the list, I have a group that’ll take their place instead” Kin said. Different Bangtan boys?  
“So they’re taking the name?” the stage manager asked.  
“Yep, new Bangtan, girls are going to love them” she explained.  
I had to get the boys. They won’t have left, Jungkook wouldn’t let them. My texts weren’t going through to him so I had to find them. First place. Their dressing room. Sneaky sneaking down the hallways was a lot easier than I remember sneaking around on other planets. Guessed it helped I was human for once.  
When I reached their door, I tried opening it but it was obviously locked.  
“Hello? Help!” I heard Jungkook say from the other side.  
“Jungkook! It’s me, Lyra, shh, keep your voice down” I said, glancing left and right. I used the Doctors sonic I had borrowed and slipped into their dressing room. I was immediately met with giant hugs, from everyone except Namjoon.  
“Manager! We’re so sorry! That girl! She must have…” they all spoke at the same time and I stopped them.  
“Hey hey, none of that, it’s fine, she’s dangerous and you have to stay well away from her ok?” they all let go of me and I looked to Namjoon. We stared at each other for a few seconds until he suddenly bowed.  
“I’m sorry, my response to her was incredibly unprofessional and I should have trusted you as Bangtan’s leader” he said. I pulled him up from his bow and threw my arms around him.  
“I have a lot to explain after all of this, and I promise all of it will be the truth” I pulled away “but right now, we have to get you guys on stage, issue is, you’ve been replaced by Kin, so we’re going to have to be sneaky about it and…you’re gonna have to trust me! No matter what happens off stage, do not stop performing, your future depends on it, got it?” I said and they all nodded “Alright, let’s get this debut started!”  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Plan had been made. I would lock the replacement group in their dressing room, which I felt bad about but, in the long run, it had to be done. Slip past Kin to get the boys on stage. Then I’d have to get her to chase me to the broadcasting room. Seemed simple enough. First task was the easiest. Distracted them with food and locked in. Done and dusted.  
Getting past Kin was a little more difficult. We were going to end up cutting it fine, deciding to wait until she goes to find the missing group and slip the boys on then. As soon as she realised they weren’t there for their live slot and headed towards the dressing room. Once I saw she had left the staging area and past us, I took Joon’s hand, leading the boys towards the stage.  
I stood in front of the stage manager, smiling widely.  
“Hey, Bangtan are here and ready to go” I said.  
“But Kin has just gone to…never mind, I’ll call her back” she was about to shout for her when I cut her off.  
“No need, I’ll go fetch her for you, just get the boys on and going, yeah?” I said, stepping to one side, pushing them on stage, ready for lights up “remember, don’t stop performing, no matter what you see or hear” I said one last time before running off stage as the music started and the lights went up.  
I was ready for her. As soon as she heard the music going, I knew she’d coming running back to try and stop it. I stood right in between the corridor to the dressing rooms and the stage, feet planted, ready to stand my ground. It didn’t take her long. Within seconds she spotted me and came hurtling towards me. The anger in her eyes, I swear could burn through metal, but I refused to move. I stayed put as she slammed herself into me, both of us crashing to the ground.  
“Kin, stop, it’s too late” I grabbed her hands, trying to stop her from punching me “They’re live, they’re performing, you can’t stop the future now”  
“What about their future? They trusted you to the end and you stayed loyal to them…maybe I should have just killed you and been done with it rather than faffing about” she screamed at me as she wrestled me. I struggled to keep her restrained.  
“Wait…you weren’t trying to cause a paradox?” I asked.  
“I wanted you to suffer! Feel how I felt when you took everything away from me” I could see the moment the cogs turned in her head as she realised what I had just said “…but a paradox seems like a good idea” she pushed herself off me and ran off. Damn it!   
I saw Yunki glancing at me from the stage, looking worried. I gestured for him to keep going as I chased after Kin.  
She was fast and I had no idea where she was going, but she now had the intent of creating a paradox now, unlike before when I had her motives wrong. I ran after her up the stairs, not far from the room I needed her to be in, so I called her bluff. I managed to grab her wrist, pull her behind me but I let go and continued to run, this time, in the direction I wanted her to go in. I hoped she’d take the bait and believe I didn’t want her to go to the room I was running to.  
“I won’t let you do this!” she took it and followed me towards the desolate broadcasting room. I hid round the door and as soon as she was inside, I tossed the sonic outside, closed the door and locked it firmly.  
“Kin, this needs to stop” I said, quickly glancing at the clock. The Doctor said she’d be here in five minutes. Five minutes to distract her.  
“To stop? You’re the one who took everything away from me that day! You turned my people away from me! You’re the reason they banished me!” she spat at me, stalking towards me.  
“No, I’m not, you’re the reason for your decisions” she swung at me and I dodged “you’re the one who thought that machine would do your people good when it was doing them harm, Kin it was draining their life force!” she swung again, thankfully missing me.  
“You deserve to feel how I felt then, to have those you love abandon you, but since that’s not going to happen, then I’ll just stop those pathetic boys from doing their little dancing” she slammed something into the electronics behind her, that device from before? Sparking them to life “you said a paradox will start if they don’t perform, let’s see how that works out” the lights flickered all around us and I could see down below, through the window, that everyone hesitated. The boys stopped dancing and the cameras were almost switching off. Before I could react, Kin grabbed my hair firmly and slammed my head down into the table.  
Fuck. Ow. My head swam, my eyes not being able to focus. I couldn’t grip anything either. Something warm and thick dripped down from my nose.  
“I’m so done with you, Lyra, I never loved you, only needed to use you” I heard Kin saying as I struggled to my feet, but leant my back against the console to steady myself “maybe I’ll be kind and not let you live to see your precious BTS be ripped apart by the paradox” I saw the device she had put in and I reached for it. Electricity surged through me as the device’s ‘booby trap’ set off, and I almost pulled back, but making eye contact with the boys down on the stage I forced myself to keep a hold as the pain shot through me. I nodded to them and yanked out the device. Everything came back online and the boys continued their performance.  
Before I could make sense of anything, Kin shoved me back onto the control panel. I heard something crack in my chest, a rib? Or two? One of her arms pinned me down, cutting off my breathing as her other fist came down on my face. She didn’t say anything now, just screamed in anger. One punch. Two punch. Not just to my face, but to my chest and stomach too. I didn’t care. Any second the Doctor would be there. Just distract her.  
“It’s over, Lyra” Kin said, about to hit me one more time “can’t even defend yourself”  
“Didn’t need to” I whispered “just to distract you”  
“What?” I heard handcuffs being put onto Kin as she let go and I slumped to the floor.  
“Kin, you’re under Galactic Federation arrest with intent to maliciously cause a paradox” the general hurled round to face the Doctor “Doctor? As a Lord of Time, you will be asked to attend her trial to give her a fitting sentence” the Doctor nodded as she was dragged out of the room. She rushed to my side.  
“You took a battering” she said, bringing out her first aid kit.  
“Worth it” I smiled but grimaced at the pain “I’ll heal”  
“Maybe, but you have some explaining to do to them” she gestured to the boys behind her. Damn. They’d finished and obviously rushed up to me. Yep. Lots of explaining to do.


	17. Chapter 17

Their debut was showing on the TV screen as we all bunched around on the sofa. The broadcasting issues had been edited over as if nothing had happened and the boys performed beautifully. I had never been prouder. I couldn’t stop myself from smiling so much. The TV was switched off when they ran off stage, us knowing they were rushing to me at that point. I looked at each of them as they turned to me for approval.  
“Loved it” I grinned widely.  
“You did?!” Jimin smiled at me and I nodded.  
“You guys smashed it” I admitted and Jin hugged me tightly “ouch ow” he quickly let go.  
“Sorry!” he said, forgetting my arm was wrapped in a sling to protect my chest.  
After the events of their debut, they took me to hospital, once I had given my statement to the Galactic Feds of course. I had two broken ribs, concussion and several cuts and bruises, but I was ok. Kin was taken away and I was promised she would be kept safe and be given help, rather than just a sentence. The hospital trip was interesting, trying to explain what happened so the doctors wouldn’t worry. I was out in a couple of days once my brain had been given the all clear and the boys brought me back to the dorm to watch their debut properly. Still didn’t stop the fact that I had to tell them everything about me. They knew I was a time and space traveller. They knew I was from 2019. They knew I had been to different planets. They even knew the Doctor was an alien. I’d come clean about everything. And they still accepted me. Even if my story was extremely out there and they needed a little convincing.  
“That’s ok, just still sore” I smiled at Jin.  
“So, what do we have planned next, Manager?” Hoseok asked.  
“A whole album! I’m sure Yunki has ideas!” Taehyung said enthusiastically. My smile slowly faded. “We don’t?”   
“No, we do, but she’s not our manager anymore” Joon admitted for me. Their new manager was due to take over from me tomorrow. Namjoon was there when I quit earlier today. It was time for me to leave.  
“What? No, you promised you’d stay with us as long as we wanted you” Jungkook protested “we want you”  
“I’m not in your future guys, my name is never mentioned” I explained.  
“Yeah, but you said time was fluid, fixed points couldn’t change but other stuff could?” Yunki spoke up.  
“Yes, there are solid points in time, like the Titanic or the world wars, but just because something in time is fluid doesn’t mean you should necessarily mess with it” I said, all the boys faces dropping “I want to stay, I really do, but I can’t” they all turned away from me “guys, come on, we may see each other again in 2019”  
“You don’t have to go on the slow path, you can just jump ahead” Jin said.  
“I’m not actually, I’m jumping to 2016 to go work for Torchwood back in England, you guys taught me how to feel welcome somewhere, I’ll be using those three years to better myself and to help protect the earth” I said.  
“We heard you talking to the Doctor about it, she said it was extremely dangerous” Jin said. He was right, it was dangerous to work for Torchwood, but it was something I wanted to do. It came with a risk anyway, and I knew there may be a possibility I don’t get to 2019, but I wanted to help.  
“It is, but so is life Jin, you could get hit by a bus any day, but you still go outside” I sighed “come on, I don’t want this goodbye to be too sad”  
“You’re leaving now?!” Jimin said, tears in his eyes.  
I looked at the clock, 7pm, then back at Jimin.  
“No, I can stay a little longer” I smiled kindly to him.  
I only stayed a couple of hours. The boys were exhausted and one by one, they started dropping off to sleep as the night progressed. Jimin was the first to fall asleep, followed by Taehyung and Jungkook. It was only Namjoon who stayed awake long enough to see me leave. I carefully untangled myself from Jimin, as he had fallen asleep on me, and made my way round them, kissing each of their heads. I also left a package for them on the coffee table with ‘Bangtan’ written on it. They’d open that in the morning when I was gone, avoid the tears.   
“What’s in it?” Joon asked.  
“The letter will explain, darlin’” I said, wrapping my arms around him for a tight hug. He did the same.  
“Promise you’ll try and come back in 2019?” he asked as we pulled away.  
“I’ll try, but I can’t promise anything” I said, squeezing his hand and heading out.   
I pulled my shoes on and gave one last look to them. Joon was following me out, but the rest were sound on the sofa together. So peaceful, after such a long and stressful day. I just hoped their next manager would let them get plenty of rest and look after them well.  
“See, now we know you travel in time, it all makes sense” Joon said, opening and leaning on the door.  
“What do you mean?” I asked.  
“Your birthday mix up, your age, the way you speak, I thought there was something weird about you” he smiled.  
“Actually, I’m speaking English right now, not Korean, the TARDIS translates all languages for me in my head” I explained “so me saying something that is normal to me may not translate into Korean, therefore make it sound weird”  
“You’re not speaking Korean?” he asked “Then, if I spoke in English it you wouldn’t know the difference?”  
“Oh I’d know, you’d know too if you heard me try and speak actual Korean, everyone has their idiosyncrasies” I said as the Doctor opened the door to the TARDIS, signalling the time for me to leave. Joon looked incredibly sad and stopped talking, but his eyes were starting to form tears.  
“Next time I see you, I’ll speak Korean to you so you can hear” I promised, kissed his cheek and ran into the TARDIS without looking back. I forced myself to close the door and I leaned heavily against it so I wouldn’t be tempted to reopen it. I heard the familiar sound of the TARDIS taking off and I finally let the tears flow.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
“Better keep that promise” Joon said, also finally letting his own tears flow. He watched in awe as the TARDIS dematerialised in front of him, the wind whipping around him before completely vanishing. He stood there for a few seconds before heading back inside to find the rest of them now awake and looking straight at him. All of them were crying in their own way, them comforting each other.  
“She left us a gift, should we open it?” Joon suggested, kneeling in front of the coffee table and lifting the hand sized package. He carefully opened the main envelope to find seven individually labelled packages. One for each member. He handed them out and unfolded the letter that was also included. He read it out loud for everyone.  
‘Hey guys,   
Don’t really know how to start this letter off but, I do know I want to say thank you for the past few months. Seeing how much you guys work, the commitment you have to your craft, it really opened my eyes to how you Korean guys do boy bands. Let’s just say British boy bands don’t do that. But also thank you for the kindness and genuine love you have shared with me, I’ll never be able to repay you for it.  
I have given you each something that I have kept a hold of for too long, not knowing what to do with them, until now!’  
He gestured for the boys to open each gift. They pulled out a tiny stone, each one a different shape, slightly different in size and colour.  
‘What each of you are holding, or at least I hope you’ve opened them now, if not, open please. What each of you are holding is a piece of an alien planet. Every place I have visited I have taken a small piece of earth in memory of each one. Don’t ask me why I did it, I have no idea, but now I have a reason for them, to give to you. I have given you a short description of each ‘rock’ so you know where it’s come from and what it could possibly do. You can do whatever you’d like with them, turn it into jewellery, an ornament or whatever! It’s yours to do as you see fit.  
The next few years are going to be hard and you’re going to come up against some challenges, but just know, I believe in you guys every step of the way. I’ll be watching from a far, I promise.   
Last thing, I promise, even though I probably said I’ll try and see you in 2019, I can’t promise this. In all honesty, it’s going to be better for you guys, and much safer, if you forget me. Knowing about me and my life can put you all in danger, so, forget about me, but I’ll never forget about you, any of you. I love you all so much.  
You’re all gonna be awesome!  
Lyra xxx’  
“We can’t forget about her” Hoseok pipped up first.  
“No, I think that’s the one thing we can’t do, we all in agreement?” Joon asked, all of them nodding “then we won’t speak about her, discuss her in public, but between us, we’ll always remember her…and wait for her to come back in 2019”  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
“First things first…” The Doctor said once I had had my little cry.  
“Give them my CV” I said as the Doctor travelled back to a couple of weeks before we crash landed.   
I did what I had to do. Printed off a fake CV, ran in to Big Hit and literally begged them to give me the job. I remembered to say everything that I was told when I started, even the stuff that confused me at first, it all had to be said in order to keep time correct.  
Once that was all sorted, we took off and the Doctor set course for 2016, Earth, Cardiff exactly. I sat on the sofa and let out a sigh of relief.  
“How you feeling?” The Doctor asked.  
“Meh, is it bad I miss them already?” I asked.  
“Not at all” the Doctor smiled “Just got to remember…”  
The whole TARDIS lurched, causing us to fall off the sofa. The Doctor jumped up and ran to the console, quickly managing to level us out and continue on our way. She ran a diagnostics and began to laugh.  
“What you laughing at?” I asked, completely confused.  
“Remember when we crashed? How Kin didn’t do it…” she said and I nodded “She didn’t, we did, we just crashed into ourselves, the TARDIS must have freaked out and just tried to find a place to land, but since she’s done this before, I could control her a lot easier”  
I burst out laughing as the Doctor landed us where and when we were aiming to be.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Epilogue.  
2019\. Three whole years I had been at Torchwood. To say they were interesting was not the right word. Long? Hard? Difficult? Changed me in so many ways? Yep. I’d become extremely close with the entire team, Gwen, Jack, Ianto, Owen and especially Tosh. I never realised how tough these guys had it until I worked for them. Jack taught me good fighting and defence skills. Owen taught me some good medical skills in case of emergencies and Tosh helped me learn Korean. So many times had we all been seriously hurt, close to death, helping and saving people. But we couldn’t save everyone.  
We lost Owen first, but as it happened, weirdly, he came back to us for a bit, thanks to some weird glove Jack had found. However, we lost him and Tosh not long after that. That hit me the hardest. Tosh was like my best friend and to not be able to save her…it was a grief I could never fully get over. Then the Dalek invasion happened, which I couldn’t help too much since the Doctor didn’t know me at that point. Feeling helpless. It sucked. But that’s when the real pain hit. Those monsters…demanding our children…it happened not too long ago and I was still seriously struggling to cope with it all.  
Over the years, the only thing that kept me sane was keeping up with how BTS were doing. Bigger concerts, award shows, TV shows, they were all doing so well. The way it should be. I so longed to reach out to them every so often, Tosh usually encouraged me to do so, but I refused. As I had said in my letter, they were safer with me out of their lives. Especially now.  
It had been a couple of weeks since the Children of Earth incident and myself and Gwen travelled up a hill to meet with Jack who had been in hiding as well. We all had to hide from the government at that point, after all, we were the ones trying to stop their decisions, they didn’t want that. So, they destroyed Torchwood using a bomb in Jack. Gwen and Ianto managed to escape fine, but I was caught up in it. We were separated for a while since I knew the government were following me. I was badly injured, but I couldn’t let them follow me. After it all, losing Ianto in the process, we had all gone in hiding, only now getting a message from Jack to meet.  
We hugged tightly and he handed me a massive envelope.  
“I think it’s time you went back to them” he said “everything is sorted, you have a flat bought in Seoul, plane tickets are for the day after tomorrow”  
“Jack…I can’t…” I said.  
“Lyra, you’re officially dead in the UK, when the list of the dead was released I got a call from Namjoon? Begging me it wasn’t true, have no idea how relieved he was when I told him the truth” he smiled “they want you to go, so go, you’re as safe as you’ll ever be right now”  
“They want me? I told them to forget about me” I said, clutching the envelope.  
“Like they could do that” Jack laughed “please go”  
“Thank you” I hugged him one last time.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
The entire day of travelling gave me massive anxiety. Making the decision to go to Korea terrified me. I so wasn’t the person I was when I met them, and I knew for a fine fact they wouldn’t be the same either. We’ll have all grown, changed and developed. Would they still want me? This mess of a person who had seen way too much death? I had violent anxiety attacks and struggled a lot with the grief of my friends, would they accept me? Would they turn up at the airport like Jack said they would? Most of my stuff had to be destroyed, but Jack assured me my flat was fully furnished with some extras for me. Carrying as many of my clothes I was allowed, I managed to board the flight with little issues.   
The flight itself was long and tiring, which certainly didn’t help with my anxious thoughts. Even listening to their music didn’t help. But it passed. Eventually.  
Getting through customs was interesting. Lots of questions I had to pay full attention too with me new, slightly altered, identity. Got through it though. Baggage reclaim was obviously boring and a long wait, and typically, my bag was last. Of course it was. The whole baggage reclaim area was empty by the time by bag finally turned up. I hurled it off and made my way through to arrivals.  
I stopped just before the final door, promising myself that if they weren’t there then fine. They didn’t want me. I could find a new group to form and start from scratch. I had a new life ahead of me, they didn’t have to be a part of it…no matter how I wanted them to. One final, deep breath and I pushed through.   
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“Do you really think she’ll come?” Jimin asked as Hoseok held the sign over the barrier with Jimin on one side and Jin on the other. They each wore their little bracelets of the stones Lyra had given them all those years ago. They only wore them to concerts and major performances, but today was extra special.  
They’d made the banner themselves when they heard the news that their original manager would be returning to Korea. It had been so long, 7 years since they had seen her. They couldn’t help but be excited, especially when they thought they had lost her during the Children of Earth incident. She was on the list of the dead, Namjoon had seen it himself and had to break the news to the rest of them. However, when he got in contact with Jack, he confirmed that she was ok, just in hiding. Relieved, and a little confused, they demanded that if she was in hiding, she should come back to Korea. They promised to look after her. That phone call killed a little bit of each of them hearing what she had been through, that she wasn’t who she used to be, her mental health had declined and that she needed a lot of help. Determined, they all agreed to the responsibility and wanted to help.  
Here they were, at the airport, not even 100% sure she would come. Joon believed though. She had promised him all those years ago she would try. Ever since they put their differences aside that day, agreed to work together to make BTS, she never broke a promise. This time would be no exception.  
“She will, she promised” Joon said, smiling at Jimin.   
They were hugely famous in Korea, and worldwide now, so they knew it would be difficult to do this meet for her, but their manager promised it would happen. Security was doubled around them and their fans respected their space, most of them anyway. They could still hear them screaming a distance away, but they ignored them. Right now, her flight had landed and they knew she wouldn’t be long now.  
They waited. And waited. And waited. The last few passengers trickled through the doors until it went quiet.  
“She didn’t come?” Taehyung asked, disappointed and hurt.  
“No, no, she must have…maybe she can’t find her luggage?” Jungkook suggested “she wouldn’t not come…”  
Joon could see the pure hurt in their eyes. He didn’t want to believe that she had decided against coming, but her flight had landed, passengers gone with their friends and families, where was she? A good couple of minutes had passed before Joon turned away, facing defeat. Jungkook’s face lit up suddenly.  
“Manager!” Jungkook shouted and they all turned to see Lyra pushing through the arrivals doors.  
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“Manager!” I knew that voice. It had deepened, but it was still Jungkook’s.  
My eyes followed the voice to see all of the boys jumping up and down, shouting for me. They were all there. Jeez, they had grown, matured, and yet they were still the boys I left seven years ago. And yet they still wanted me. Shouting for me. Grinning, excited to see me. I felt the tears forming as felt my legs taking over and began running. They followed my suit.  
I ran all the way down arrivals to reach the end of the barrier, never breaking eye contact with them as we all ran. Jin was in the lead, the rest of them right behind. I dropped my luggage when I reached the end, rounding the corner and throwing myself at Jin. My arms wrapped around him as he caught me easily. The rest of the boys threw their arms around us both as the tears finally flowed. I hadn’t felt this happy for over a year. When I thought everything I loved was gone, friends, colleagues, just gone, nothing to live for, these guys reminded me that life was worth living. I must have clung to Jin for a while because my arms got too tired to hold on as I slipped from his arms. He carefully let me go but none of them fully let go of me.  
“Manager, we thought you weren’t coming!”  
“You worried us!”  
“We thought you were dead!”  
“I can’t believe you’re here!”  
“You going to be part of our manager team? Please say you are!”  
They all talked over each other as I finally smiled. I put my hand up to gesture for them to be quiet a minute. I turned to face Joon. I bowed and spoke in the Korean I had taken three solid years to learn.  
“Hello, my name is Lyra, and I am your new manager if you’ll have me” I said proudly. Joon’s face dropped as he realised what I had just done. He didn’t say anything except hug me tightly.  
It was going to be tough, but I was home.


End file.
